John Lewis + Partners is a treasured British retail brand with 52 stores nationwide and significant online presence. It’s easy to sense their place of affection with the British public but if a measurement is needed then evidence is that it was rated as the top UK brand in YouGov’s 2018 mid-year brand health check.
We’re proud of our relationship with John Lewis + Partners. They have chosen to work with us for the last 20 years. The recent rebrand is the second we have been involved in. The last rebrand was 15 years ago in 2003.
The development this time has been to align John Lewis + Partners and Waitrose + Partners in a strategy to recognise and enhance the role of the staff – who are all partners and owners – in the experience of shopping at John Lewis or Waitrose. It’s a huge investment to respond to the seismic shifts happening in the retail sector particularly high street department stores.
A key feature of trust in a brand is that you never doubt that they’ll get it right every time in every detail. If something does go wrong, you trust they’ll correct it as soon as possible and the mistake was like a freak accident – unavoidable in unforeseeable circumstances.
We are bought in because they know we’ll do our part perfectly and get every detail right.
We are trusted to be the guardian of the brand. We use our deep knowledge of the John Lewis + Partners wayfinding strategy and typographic standards to find the bespoke and often nuanced solution to the requirements of the brand and the space it has to be applied in. Each store presents a different challenge.
Our work in store calls for problem solving practicality and understanding of what matters most to our client. We bring this together to deliver instore directional signage that orientates store visitors to get quickly and comfortably to where they want to go to so that their attention and energy is completely free to enjoy the shopping experience they’re in store for.
We think of wayfinding as the ‘silent partner’. Directional signage should be as effective and comforting as directional advice from a human being. Our signage compliments the helpful advice of the real Partners.