Case Study
Brief
Since 1983, Swissmar has been known for quality European housewares but the brand needed a modern refresh to align with its global ambitions.
Despite the brand’s strong reputation in the market, the logo felt dated and the visual language lacked cohesion. My goal was to evolve Swissmar’s identity, giving it a modern look while preserving the heritage and recognition that customers trusted.
Solution
The redesign centered on a "heritage-forward" evolution. By distilling Swissmar’s visual cues down to their core elements, I was able to build off Swiss design principles to establish a design system that felt both new and easily recognizable.
Logo Concept
The original logo featuring a maple leaf and the Swiss cross served as a starting point for the rebrand. A promising first concept was developed but legal regulations required us to pivot and develop an alternative without the Swiss cross or maple leaf.
The new direction for Swissmar as a brand focused on celebrating shared experiences rather than products. Known for its fondue and raclette sets, the brand’s essence lies in bringing people together around the table. The new logo embodies this through a simple, symbolic mark inspired by an overhead view of a dining table surrounded by chairs.
logo Design
To honor the brand's heritage, I set the wordmark in Helvetica, a well established Swiss typeface. Its mathematical precision and neutral character provided the ideal foundation to support the bold, clean lines of the new icon. I engineered the outer stroke weight of the icon to precisely match the stem thickness of the letterforms. By creating this direct geometric link between the symbol and the type, I ensured the identity felt cohesive and balanced.
I developed a custom typographic lockup for the tagline, ‘Bringing life to the table’ by splitting the copy across two lines. By precisely aligning the ascenders and descenders I engineered the lockup to nest together perfectly.
PACKAGING
Packaging was a major focus of the rebrand, with significant attention given to how the new identity would appear at retail. We retained Swissmar’s signature red and black palette to maintain brand recognition, while introducing an expanded colour system to create a more premium and timeless look.
The layout and typography were chosen to convey quality and craftsmanship, while the new colour pallet allowed the food photography to take centre stage and provide a neutral backdrop that tested will at the retail level. The goal was simple: make people hungry, while positioning Swissmar as a high-quality, industry-leading brand.
LIFESTYLE PHOTOGRAPHY
I developed a new creative direction for Swissmar’s studio and lifestyle photography, establishing a cohesive visual language that unified all product categories.
I photographed and edited the product imagery myself, setting the standard for lighting, composition, and tone. For the lifestyle photography, I collaborated with Arch've to refine the overall mood and ensure both styles worked together seamlessly to strengthen the brand’s visual identity.
STUDIO PHOTOGAPHY
Consistency is essential for making sure product photos all feel like they belong to the same brand and I used a combination of lighting techniques and camera angles to ensure that every product, at every size, felt like it belonged to the same family. Each product required in use and stand alone images to properly communicate the function to the customer.
ONLINE RETAIL
An online retail environment requires additional images to help further explain the product contents, function and size. Exploded views, full dimension breakdowns and combination images for products sets were created inline with the same systems as the standard "hero" studio shots.
MARKETING
Rolling out the new identity across all supporting materials was where the brand truly came to life. I designed a new product catalogue featuring updated color, typography, with new studio and lifestyle photography.
Together with the team, I developed a suite of marketing materials including posters, banners, and social media templates, all aligned to the new visual language. I also created a logo animation to communicate the meaning behind the new mark and provided creative direction for the updated website, ensuring a cohesive brand experience across every touchpoint.
BRAND BOOK SLIDER
Add slider with multiple pages from the brand guidelines to flip through.
SOLUTION
I played a lead role in redefining Swissmar’s brand identity, from concept to execution. The rebrand was a collaborative effort between myself, our marketing team, and an outside agency, Arch’ve. Guided by two highly experienced creatives, I helped drive the creative vision and design direction that shaped the new logo, packaging, photography, and marketing materials, while gaining invaluable experience leading a large-scale rebrand.
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