WATSON’S REBRAND | ENVIRONMENTAL GRAPHIC DESIGN

Branded Experience, Concept Design, Brand Identity, Brand Messaging, Digital Design, Interactive, Wayfinding, Exterior Signage, Sculpture, Production Design
Cincinnati, Ohio

We have been working with Watson’s for many years. This time we pulled out all of the stops to create a new integrated retail experience for the brand. Working with Gorilla Group in Chicago, we started by helping finalize and extend a new logo and tagline treatment. In addition, we created brand guidelines for all aspects of the new brand. We even designed a custom icon library of characters for use in in-store graphics, digital animations and more.

Working with SHP Architecture and CUC (Cincinnati United Contractors), we compose a new interior design package. The package included new exterior signs, interior branding, educational displays, electronic banners, category signs, and wayfinding. We also wrote the book on employee apparel, vehicle decor, and electronic in-store communications. Then, we detailed instructions on how to take this new look and system to other stores in the Watson’s family. This plan included smaller accessory and satellite stores as well.

Used as the new brand mark, our [W] is also shorthand for Watson’s original tagline: Watson’s has all the fun! We designed a 12’ high monument sculpture located in the new Watson’s roundabout. Seen from every direction, this sculpture is both centerpiece and signage.

To see more about the digital design for Watson’s, follow the link here.

We embraced the tagline “Life’s Best Moments Start Here” for our environmental design. A large-scale, custom, split-flap feature immediately greets shoppers on entry. This welcome feature sets the tone for everything Watson’s is selling. It represents meaningful connections with friends, family, nature and yourself! Look for our detailed story about the makings of this new feature in our Blog.

Part of our integrated retail experience included large, in-store graphics and wayfinding to anchor each department. The design is a composition of hex video screens and lit department name signs. The videos depict the emotional essence of each category. They act as a constant reminder to customers of how this product will enhance their homes and lives.

We also designed a system of digital banners and sprinkled them throughout the store. Controlled remotely, these displays are dynamic, targeted, attention-getting and consistent. Using our graphic guidelines and custom icon library, we designed and produced all digital content.

The result is a customized delivery of key messages for each department. Promotional events, vendor specials, and overarching Watson’s messaging are all included. 22 monitors deliver 116 different messages according to their location, date, and promotion. This system revolutionizes the retail environment and is both cost-effective and functional.

Inspired by the hex patterns of the new brand, we designed a custom iconography suite for Watson’s. The icons expand and shrink to fit a variety of needs. With the addition of simple animations, the icons are an effective tool for delivering brand messaging. This strategy helps maintain the fun atmosphere that embodies the Watson’s experience.

As part of our integrated retail experience for Watson’s, we designed custom displays. These displays are mobile and double as educational hubs for the sales team. Customers can visually see the Watson’s difference and select the perfect product for their family/lifestyle. Simple, clean, and beautiful displays cut through the surrounding clutter. We even designed a new, modular barstool display system. The display easily reconfigures for a variety of display options.

Markdown Marketplace is a place for special promotions, clearance items, and floor models. We designed the mark and facade for this new store-in-a-store.

The integrated retail experience expands in the Watson’s Pool Accessory Store. This is another store-in-store department that needed its own look. Fun, dimensional murals distinguish the Pool Accessory Store while staying on brand.

We helped create a comprehensive look for all Accessory stores/departments. Polished concrete floors, lighting, fixtures, graphics, interactive computer and vendor displays all combine to support the brand. Then we designed a detailed strategy so other satellite stores can adopt this look, stay consistent and be on brand.

Pool School is an integral part of the Watson’s sale process. We organized and redesigned the pitch making it easy to use, understand, and buy.

White Design Studio is a multidisciplinary design firm located in Columbus and Cincinnati, Ohio. We specialize in the design, production, and installation of integrated branding solutions. Our solutions orchestrate corporate identity, marketing, storytelling, environmental, photography, video, print and interactive elements. At White Design Studio, we believe the best way to communicate your brand’s story is through branded environments and experiences. We work with manufacturers, service providers, non-profits, architects and developers, agencies, distributors, governments and municipalities, and museums. First, we identify the work that a campaign, space, or interactive needs to do. We can then model a vision of what success looks like, and design to meet that vision. We are passionate about helping clients communicate their value through well-crafted storytelling, a consistent 2D, 3D, and digital design approach and expert production techniques.

Strategy: White Design Studio is your strategically-focused design source. Our marketing communications are custom-tailored to meet our customers’ objectives. Our creative solutions take many forms, but all are designed for maximum effectiveness. Each solution delivers key brand messaging to a wide variety of audiences.

Brand Audit: Every brand needs realigning every five years or so. White Design Studio provides comprehensive brand audits to help evaluate what existing materials support or, more importantly, dilute your brand. We’ll make your identity stronger and offer suggestions to move your group to a more integrated brand experience.

Brand Guidelines: Every use of your brand is an opportunity to reinforce your messaging and differentiate you from your competition. Our Brand Guidelines, or Brand Platforms, ensure that each opportunity is meaningful and effective. These Guidelines are your branding playbook; illustrating your brand story and defining graphic rules for use in designing brand materials. We’ll help guide you on not only how your brand talks, but how it looks as well.

Branded Experience: Sometimes called Environmental Graphic Design or Experiential Graphic Design, White Design Studio designs and creates strategic, compelling and memorable experiences. Our solutions deliver key messaging, branded specifically for each target audience. Workplace, Corporate Briefing Centers, Showrooms and Lobbies, Museum Displays and Exhibits, Retail Showrooms and Store Design are all great examples of White Design’s sweet spot of design, fabrication and installation capabilities.

Interactive: We combine unique technologies and fabrication techniques to create impactful interactive solutions for conveying our customer’s messaging objectives. Our installations deliver critical information to all of your audiences in a way that is entertaining and memorable. RFID, Projection Mapping, Touch, Proximity Detection and the use of Motion Activated Devices are just a few of the tools we use to deliver your message. White Design Studio’s goal is to make the technology invisible so nothing comes between your audience and your message.

Corporate Sculptures: At White Design Studio we design art with a purpose. Our interior and exterior, custom-designed art installations and sculptures help create iconic symbols for Communities, Municipalities, Non-Profits and Corporations. These commissioned artworks embody the essence of a group by distilling their core brand messaging into a creative and unique 3D feature. Whether it’s interior or exterior sculptures, hanging mobiles in an atrium, a monumental courtyard centerpiece, or other public art installations Peter and his team collaborate with artisans to create one-of-kind expressions that tell your story in a memorable way.

White Design Studio operates most efficiently in the design sweet-spot between environments, identity, and communications. Comfortable stretching any direction, we are at ease designing for one element. But, we are at our best when we can combine each element to develop a fully integrated brand and messaging system. We collaborate with industry-leading professionals on large-scale projects, but can also comfortably operate as your single-source design partner. We partner with Developers, Architects, Engineers, Facility Managers, Creative Directors, Marketing Departments Advertising Agencies and other Design Studios.