Spanner - Ascenda - Toronto Full-Service Marketing Agency

Background

SPANNER is an established Canadian women’s wear brand, with collections distributed to over 1,000 fine specialty stores across North America, Australia and New Zealand. In order to compete in the ever-changing retail and fashion landscape, SPANNER embarked on a brand refresh which coincided with the opening of their first ‘Showcase Store’, located in Toronto’s Shops at Don Mills.

Challenge

We were tasked with elevating the existing wordmark to complement the new sophisticated and contemporary look of the brand’s apparel. The overall logo would also require refinement to ensure it reinforced SPANNER’S position in the marketplace as a fashion forward company that offers timeless style for the modern woman.

One of the key client “asks” was to create a logo that contained a graphic element that could be modified and transposed into unique shapes and graphics for all extensions of the brand. In addition, a retail rejuvenation of their brand would not only set the tone for their debut in the Toronto fashion retail marketplace, but also would become the new directional look for every element of the brand’s identity.

Solution

We designed a logo featuring a stylized capital ‘S’ glyph as the signature icon. This glyph served as the foundation for the creation of a set of 4 secondary icons.

In total, four secondary icons were created based on the “S” glyph from the primary icon. In keeping with the seasonal nature of the fashion industry, the icons take on a level of sophistication, femininity and floral design. These icons would be used to visually unify all of SPANNER’S communication elements, and allowed for the flexibility and playfulness that the client desired for the brand. Clean, distinctive and contemporary, the icons are prominent across all consumer touch points.

To establish the new brand positioning, we also developed a tagline to work alongside the new iconography/logo, “Inspired Style”. The intent of the new positioning line was to reinforce SPANNER’S brand to a younger and stylish demographic and be more aspirational to their shoppers.

A close up image of the sign at the Spanner store at Shops at Don Mills

An image of the window display at the Spanner store at Shops at Don Mills

An image of the interior lighting at the Spanner store at Shops at Don Mills

Results

Following the launch of the revised brand, SPANNER saw a substantial increase in awareness with not only their current clients, but even more importantly a new, younger client demographic. The revised brand delivered a sophisticated and elevated look as desired, allowing the client to demand a premium for their fashion collection.