Formation Furniture
New Realm Creative was invited to create and implement the rebranding of a business undergoing a name change.
Opened in 2006, the factory now named Formation Furniture is a dedicated furniture factory located in Bridgend, South Wales. Working in a vertical market, Formation transforms conceptual designs into market-leading products for national furniture retailers.
The Brief
The first stage was to establish the brief with the client. Formation Furniture were a great group to work with as they are a very creative team with an understanding of style and fit.
The brief started with the announcement by the client of the new name Formation Furniture, having previously been called Steinhoff UK.
The strategy was to create a clean, professional brand for a business-to-business market. The logo had to be versatile enough to fit in a number of deliverables with consistency. It was also hoped that there could be an element of something local brought into the branding.
The Creative Journey
The stages of our creative journey are always the same: research, strategy, design and implementation.
During the research phase we worked with Formation Furniture to look around their modern factory, viewing the product ranges, textile swatches and talking to the craftspeople about what the company meant to them.
Next we went through a phase of desk research, looking at the furniture market, visual language and geographical influences that we could bring into the concept.
With a large number of ideas sourced, we then started the more tricky task of grouping elements together to form a style that could offer Formation Furniture a branding strategy.
It’s very common at this stage that the client doesn’t have an exact brand strategy or precisely know the full look they want. Typically, there may be a very general concept, but there is usually only one and this won’t have been very well formed.
We presented four viable strategies in the form of a series of style guides. The style guides do not include any new design by us, rather they offer a visual feel through the curated images.
Design
We typically present three logos, but if we have developed a couple more that we believe in, we will present those in addition.
The mix of options ranged from Celtic influences and oceanic colours (the factory is only a few miles from the beach) to clean, versatile brand marks. The client had advised that they had a strong preference for one of the colourways we had presented (predominantly made up of blue and grey hues) so all of the logos we presented used this palette.
We always leave all the style guides and the logo options with the client, so they can take their time to browse and consider the implications of each style on their company image.
After consideration, Formation selected a clean logo that uses the two F’s in Formation Furniture to create the arms of the chair in the brand mark.
Development
At the logo development stage we can go through a number of rounds of amendments, including tweaks to the brandmark, variations on the colourway, and the choice of fonts.
The client really liked this design and as we had already agreed on the colourway, we just had to show a few font options to help them make the final choice.
Implementation
We provided the complete logo suite including all source files and various colour options from the colourway. This enabled Formation to use their logo on different backgrounds whilst keeping the brand consistent.
A brand guide was delivered along with a number of digital and print assets.
To fully implement the rebrand, we also worked with the experienced Elite Signs to bring the new branding to life on-site.
Creating a strong first impression is key, especially when you host many meetings for buyers for the top furniture retail stores. The exterior sign was one of the key placements to show off the new brand. Laser-cut 10mm thick acrylic letters with colour-matched vinyl face, bonded to a three metre powder-coated sign tray were used for a solid on-brand look.
The Interior sign in the foyer follows the same material specification as the exterior sign, and a printed logo mat continues the branding as visitors move inside the building.
The Final Result
The new branding looks great and works extremely well in all placements. It was great to work with such a professional creative team and we look forward to the next stage.