We led the creative direction and system design for Winsor & Newton’s brand refresh – a strategic refinement of a globally recognised art materials brand. The aim was not to disrupt, but to distil: creating a visual identity that felt emotionally connected, audience-led and globally adaptable, while remaining grounded in the trust the brand has built since 1832. Alongside the core identity, we developed Through the Eyes of the Artist – a campaign platform designed to spotlight creative process and shift the brand’s tone from institutional to intimate.

At the centre of the campaign was a new marque, combining griffin, wordmark and strapline into a clean, contemporary lockup that could flex across regions, formats and media. We also redesigned the global packaging system – replacing a fragmented structure with a unified framework that flexes across tiers and audiences, and introducing vivid, cropped paint imagery as the brand’s most recognisable visual cue.

A new photographic direction was created to privilege tactility, surface and process – moving away from sterile product imagery and towards something more human and emotionally resonant. This visual language rolled out across digital campaigns, social, in-store materials and the inaugural Paul Smith & Winsor & Newton International Art Prize – helping position the brand as contemporary, artist-first and culturally alert.

We worked closely with internal teams and stockists to build a toolkit that could flex across packaging, print, digital and motion – formalised in detailed brand guidelines and a printed brand book. The result was a scalable system that supported coherence without rigidity and made it easier for teams to roll out content with clarity and confidence.