Independent agency Brandon is pleased to share the launch of its latest work with PZ Cussons: a new visual brand identity for Imperial Leather, which includes recrafting the iconic heritage logo and a full packaging redesign across the brand’s product portfolio.

“Revitalising heritage brands is one of our specialities at Brandon and, when it comes to the bathroom, there isn’t a brand more steeped in heritage than Imperial Leather. In recent years, the washing and bathing category has evolved, and so has Imperial Leather. What had become clear was that the brand had shifted too far from what made it iconic in the first place, and it was at risk from competitors. Our challenge was to help the brand stand strong in a changing category, rebuilding its distinctive brand assets to re-establish brand recognition and desirability amongst consumers who had begun to look elsewhere.”
– Richard Taylor, Co-Founder of Brandon Consultants

Setting a new vision for the brand rooted in the idea of ‘abundance’, the Imperial Leather team tasked Brandon with translating this into design strategy, then building out the assets needed to execute both on and off shelf.

Consumer research confirmed the need to revive the crown – the brand’s heritage logo, which had been lost in recent design changes – to boost brand recognition and reaffirm Imperial Leather’s quality and expertise credentials.

Brandon refined the Imperial Leather wordmark for greater stand out and brought back the red ribbon as a key brand asset, then recrafted the iconic crown. Look closely and you’ll find modernised references to fragrance, water drops, and swirling lather, all meticulously crafted to find the sweet spot between enduring legacy and contemporary design. The result is timeless without feeling dated, resetting Imperial Leather as the respected heritage brand it is.

Heritage logo re-established, Brandon’s broader branding design strategy was based on the idea of duality and tensions.

“Balancing the old with the new, the sophisticated with the accessible, it was also important that we communicated the dualities of lather and fragrance that Imperial Leather products are known and loved for. Our new sensorial graphic language for Imperial Leather feels fresh yet classic, and it speaks to the brand’s sense of generosity and the concept of everyday pleasure. To complement our recrafted wordmark, we created a new set of key brand assets, including sophisticated fragrance cameos and our swirl and foam textures, all of which conjure up the indulgent experience of using the products.”
– Katie Rowley, Design Director at Brandon Consultants

Alongside the recrafted logo, new fragrance cameos and textures, design details within the new visual brand identity system include:

• Resetting the primary colour palette to elevate the distinctive Red and Gold that Imperial Leather has always been known for, complemented by a new Paper White that allows the products and fragrances to shine.
• A sophisticated secondary colour palette that communicates fragrance in a serenely sensorial way, and aids shelf navigation.
• Developing a refined approach to typography with clear guidelines for use: Carena Regular for headings and titles, Colabera Regular for subtitles, Brandon Grotesque Black for iconography, Brandon Grotesque Medium for body copy, and Myriad for back-of-pack. These were chosen as a complementary set to modernise the brand whilst retaining the feeling of heritage elegance. A sprinkling of custom ligature flourishes represent the soft, flowing movement of water and lather to bring through an extra touch of sensorial pleasure in the words.
• Custom crafting a new ampersand to use in headlines and variant naming. This is ownable to Imperial Leather and plays into the duality of its product fragrances.
• A crafted Ultimate Moisture wordmark to give this sub-brand its own distinct personality whilst still working in harmony with the new masterbrand logo and typography.
• A new suite of iconography designed in a simple yet elegant style to communicate product benefits and experiences.

Setting the new design vision for Imperial Leather at masterbrand level, Brandon also overhauled the packaging designs across the brand’s iconic soap, shower, bath and Foamburst ranges.

Devising clear design principles and hierarchy for each range, every element on pack has been carefully considered to showcase the luxurious fragrances, rich lather, and individual product experiences. Each range now has its own distinct personality and design nuance – such as how the flow of foam or lather textures are depicted on the pack structures – but they now feel like a family under the new Imperial Leather masterbrand.

“Imperial Leather is renowned for its rich lather and signature fragrance. Our brief to the Brandon team was to creatively and visually bring these qualities to life, revitalising the brand in a way that reconnects with what consumers have always loved about it. The result is an enduring, iconic and distinctive design and together we have reset Imperial Leather as a desirable and – importantly – relevant brand for today and the future.”
– Sophie Daniels, Senior Brand and Innovation Manager, PZ Cussons

The new branding and packaging for Imperial Leather is launching across the UK now.