Roots is a luxury interior design company specializing in sourcing bespoke fixtures and furniture. They are perfectionists in their craft and are well known for their attention to detail and unique style.
Creation of a full brand identity, logo, style tile and mockups, as well as an initial website look and feel. An all inclusive project, challenging various design disciplines simultaneously.
Brand elements incorporate modern features and masculine edges, along with natural warmth and softness of golden wood tones for a contrasting, yet cohesive and neutral identity.
As a luxury interior design company specializing in sourcing bespoke features and furniture, Roots are perfectionists in their craft and well known for their unique style, with clients preferring minimalist fashion and architecture brands that practice a less-is-more approach. Roots has a target market within the City of London where clientele are comfortable paying a premium for a premium service with projects rarely falling below the 100k mark.
Roots needs to imbue pure luxury, while maintaining a minimal aesthetic that doesn’t compete or detract from the beautiful imagery and products displayed. The client highlighted high-end architectural firms and bespoke fit and design companies, including the hotel company The Hoxton, and custom furniture maker Benchmark as brand examples that they would like to emulate.
Brand buzzwords include: Luxury, quality, trust, value, high-end, beautiful, one-of-a-kind, minimalist, comfort, charm.
After reviewing the client intake information, visiting their inspired company website suggestions, performing some preliminary market research, and with the key reference words in mind, I began compiling imagery into a mood board and exploring color palettes from that imagery. This was an ideal starting platform for me to experiment with a couple ideas before establishing a cohesive look and feel to guide the brand.
I settled on the brand tagline: “Crafting an ambiance of comfort and charm.”
The initial stage of color exploration began with color dropping selections of the brand imagery and putting those shades next to neutral hues similar to concrete gray, charcoal, and various dark and light woodtones to incorporate that hint of color.
The ultimate color palette was built around a contrasting black and ivory juxtaposed with the warmth of natural building materials like golden and deep brown woodsy tones. This allowed for a masculine, architectural feel, with contrast, neutrality, and yet a harmonious and monochromatic color scheme and brand identity.
The type was explored alongside colors, with mostly serif fonts considered for the primary typeface, but also some minimal sans-serif options, which were essential as secondary choices throughout the concept.
After some initial sketch ideas, I began with clean straight lines and minimal details around the word “Roots” for logo designs. I played with idea of a roof element over the words, and also tried the same shapes below the words, where roots would be expected.
I then shifted towards more textured strokes that better complement the serif font face. I explored various iterations of actual roots around the word, and ended up narrowing them down to four final versions that I thought would work best for the brand.
Since the request was simply for an initial website look and feel, I didn’t spend a lot of time on this specific aspect or on structuring responsive layouts. I did make a couple quick versions of the presentation and place them into mockups to get a feel for the design direction for a desktop or brochure. The website design still needs to go through some revisions and refinement.
The brand personality has been established and key values are being conveyed through the use of selected imagery, color and logo. The brand elements incorporate a modern and masculine feel with architectural edges and smooth lines, while the color scheme remains neutral with a warmth that echoes natural wood building materials. Incorporating the black and white contrasting color blocks makes the personality stand out and demand attention, without the use of vibrant color or loud iconography and busy images, while maintaining the brand’s minimalist nature and luxurious vibe.
