The John Lewis Partnership
Three new unified brand identities for the John Lewis Partnership and its much-loved retail brands, John Lewis and Waitrose.
The identities have been created to support the strategic ambitions of the two retail brands, and elevate the overall Partnership's defining characteristic: its employee ownership model.
The new 'Brandlines' logotype is inspired by a Peter Hatch pattern created for the John Lewis Partnership in the 1960s. It is based on precise proportional relationships derived from the original pattern and constantly reiterates its form across the brand.
The new identity enshrines the Partners into the forefront of the John Lewis and Waitrose brands, with the addition of '& Partners' to their logotypes.
The brand identities are informed by a shared design system; developed by Pentagram to bring coherence, clarity and flexibility to the three organisations, and their full suite of products and services.
From John Spedan Lewis' beginnings as a haberdasher, to the Hans Schleger/Peter Hatch identity-era of the 60s and 70s, the John Lewis Partnership has a distinguished pattern-making legacy.
Different versions of the logo can be used depending on the requirements of the application; responding to a wide range of products, communications and customer experiences while maintaining recognition and building a cohesive customer experience.
A typographically confident style is used in tandem with the patterns to create impactful campaigns.
A hand drawn headline font, 'brandlines alphabet', is taken from an old version of Gill and incorporates Hatches' pattern lines.
Distinctive colour palettes provide a striking singularity through the use of neutral colours, allowing product and content to take centre stage.
The colour scheme is flexible and infinitely adaptable, particularly for Waitrose, which operates in the louder world of supermarket retail.
The result is a flexible and distinctive visual language that communicates the full spectrum of activity associated with each of the Partnership's retail businesses: both separately, and in the moments where they come together.
