Design Bridge Create Identity And Packaging For New Men’s Grooming Range By Floris

Brand design agency Design Bridge has announced its work with British heritage perfume brand Floris to create the identity and packaging for their new range of grooming products for men, ‘The Gentleman Floris’, which includes a face moisturiser, shaving soap and aftershave balm. Design Bridge worked with the luxury perfume house to create a name, design and identity that celebrates the brand’s rich 300-year history, yet feels anchored in the present and appeals to younger male customers.

Inspiration for the new design came from looking back to where it all began: no. 89 Jermyn Street, where the first Floris Store was founded in 1730, and where the brand has lived ever since. Holly Kielty, creative director, brand language at Design Bridge explains, “The Jermyn Street area, with its world-famous craftsmen and tailors geared almost exclusively to the quintessential English gentleman, inspired our thinking for the new name of the range, ‘The Gentleman Floris’, which also speaks to the air of refinement inherent in the brand. Abstract hints to Floris’ Jermyn Street location also find their way onto the packaging in the form of an embossed pattern inspired by local street maps with Floris’ address at no.89 subtly highlighted.”

No. 89 is also the name of Floris’ most iconic fragrance and the scent used throughout ‘The Gentleman Floris’ range, a further link to the shop’s location and a source of inspiration for the design. Holly added, “Referencing No. 89 in our design allowed us to reflect Floris’ unique position as being the definitive perfume house located in the heart of London for nearly three centuries.”

The historic Floris shop itself also provides some key inspiration, as Carolina Pelosato, design director at Design Bridge explains, “We wanted the design to be imbued with the Floris brand’s heritage and so spent time on Jermyn Street and in the Floris shop itself. We were struck by the brass detailing of the shop-front’s historic window frames and a direct reference to this - a brass-copper strip that runs across the front of all the packaging designs – became an important element of the range’s identity. Not only does this reference help unify the range visually, it also adds a striking and modern reference of Floris’ famous shop-front on Jermyn Street, an essential part of telling the brand’s story through our design.”

Another important element of Floris’ heritage is its prestigious royal warrants, which include ‘Perfumers to HM The Queen’. In contrast to past Floris pack designs, Design Bridge include the warrants in a subtler, more understated way on packaging for the new range. This ensures the brand’s heritage lives on while leaving space for a more contemporary identity to emerge. Carolina Pelosato added, “We wanted the design to be understated, confident and refined – qualities reflective of the quintessential English gentleman we had in mind when designing the range. In creating this stylish identity it has allowed us to tell the Floris story while letting the quality of the products speak for themselves.”

A further brand asset to weave into the design was Floris’ signature dark blue. By using it as a frame for the paler blue that the brand has previously used for male grooming products, Design Bridge have ensured that the range still feels integrated into Floris’ wider brand identity but has its own distinctive, masculine personality. Alex Oprey Head of Marketing at Floris, commented: “It was so important to us that the heritage and the expectation of quality and detail of our brand shone through the identity and packaging, but also was made to feel relevant to a new generation. Design Bridge took on the challenge and succeeded in telling the Floris story while adding an exciting, contemporary chapter to it in the creation of our new male grooming range, The Gentleman Floris, and by doing so gave us a rich and relevant understanding of our current brand equity and position in the market.”

Source: Design Bridge