Start-up fashion business The Local Merchants approached us to create a brand identity for their modern-day classical menswear store. With an offering of high-quality, hand-picked garments from across the world, Sam & Ed were keen to let the clothing do a lot of the talking.
With the identity now in place, TLM has already introduced brands never before seen on English shores, and been featured in magazines such as GQ and Vogue.
“
In the simplest of terms we're just two blokes trying to save the high street.”
Ed & Sam told us they were on a simple mission... to save the high street. A tricky mission we could not turn down.
Photography by Hannah Miles
INITIAL CONCEPTS
We learnt a lot after our initial conception stage. There were some key things that were liked and areas for further exploration were decided.
Green was chosen as the core brand colour and different hues were compared to try to match the paints for the shop exterior.
Initial concepts for a Local Merchants mark.
Proposed colour palettes.
FRAMES
We experimented with the unique shape of the exterior shop windows as a framing device.
A recognisable part of the shop exterior we were keen to use this as part of the identity.
The recognisbale curved windows.
Early explorations using the curved window shape.
COLOUR
Based on a mood board of 1970s furniture design.
With a mix of British meets Italian style a colour palette was built to compliment the core greens, grey porcelain and dark wooden style that would adorn the interior.
Mood Boards by Abbie King
TYPOGRAPHY
With a brief to blend the old with the new, we paired 18th century inspired typeface Snell Roundhand with Moderat, designed in 2015.
Inspired by signwriting and early 20th century advertising cartouches were created.
LOGOTYPE
This typography combination was replicated in the logotype.
LOGOMARK
With agreed typography the logo mark was re-drawn and put into the frame device.
ADDITIONAL MARKS
Additional supporting marks and key messages were added to cartouches.
These marks are used in print, environment and online.
Furniture marks to add visual interest to layouts and re-iterate key messages.
Used both in print and environmental design.
WEBSITE
Taking The Local Merchants online
We created a slick store using the e-commerce platform Shopify. This enabled TLM to manage stock both in-store and online using Shopify POS.
© Liam Palmer 2023