Rebranding Normann Copenhagen

5 min readMay 8, 2017

This is my final project for my Graphic Design Foundations Studio while studying abroad in Copenhagen. Enjoy!

Normann Copenhagen is a high-quality lifestyle store offering simple yet innovative Scandinavian designed furniture, lighting, and more. Their current identity is simply a logotype of a sans-serif font, with a bold ‘normann’ and a high-tracking, all caps ‘COPENHAGEN’ underneath.

Looking at their website and mission statement, these quotes were particularly revealing to the identity and vision of Normann Copenhagen.

“create original and innovative products”
“withstand the test of time”
“challenge conventional thinking”
“make the ordinary extraordinary through great design”

Normann Copenhagen uses a variety of materials and colors, but focuses on wood, matte metal, and molded plastic. Recently, they have been using fun and colorful patterns in their ‘Daily Fiction’ series. Their products are usually in tune with Danish Design — simple, clean, and elegant. Their new emphasis is to push boundaries with their designs.

Normann Copenhagen’s largest competitor is HAY, another high-end lifestyle brand offering a similar range of products in furniture, lighting, kitchenware, and more. However, I found HAY to be more playful, with brighter colors, and more accessible to a younger audience. Normann’s new showroom is presented more as a ‘museum’ than a showroom with no windows, and unique formations of furniture. HAY is more traditional, with lots of natural lighting in their showroom.

Key Words

Normann Copenhagen’s primary target audience, from my research, is appealing to the hip, young adult crowd. The pricing also makes the audience those who are at least middle class, with some money to spend.

Normann Copenhagen is a brand that is trying to push boundaries with their new showroom and products, while remaining a standard for timeless design. As such, they need a visual identity that reflects that change of mindset. Their current logotype is stagnant and does not represent their new focus.

Mood Boards

I looked at other products that have feelings of both modern design, but have still lasted the test of time, in accordance with the mission of Normann.

Ideation + Brainstorming

Some different ideas I played around with for rebranding Normann with a dynamic visual identity.

Aim + Concept

Normann Copenhagen is a high quality brand offering products that are both timeless and innovative. Their current logotype is stagnant, and does not reflect the progressive nature of the company experimenting with new ideas.

Their visual identity should reflect their values to challenge everyday thinking while still having a classic and contemporary aesthetic. Subsequently, their visual identity should be dynamic a company as they are.

My main concept is to develop a dynamic visual identity that can be used across the brand. I have found there are 10 different categories of products, and there are 64 current designers. I intend to create an identity that changes based off of the designer or the category it fits into. This will allow the company to keep consistent visual language, while giving Normann flexibility in the future as the company changes.

Logotype

I developed a logotype that is reminiscent and pays tribute to the old logo, while including a new, dynamic graphic element, the lowercase letter ‘n,’ which also represents a gateway and/or bridge.

Colors

I chose colors based off the current showroom. The colors for such a dynamic and seasonal company cannot be stagnant. These would be the colors for the current season and would certainly change.

Typography

I chose a typeface that was both contemporary yet also playful. Normann’s new showroom wants to push boundaries, which means a classic font like Helvetica was not bold enough. Whitney is modern yet also has flair.

Graphic Elements

The graphic elements fill the container of the letter ’n’. In theory, each designer for the products of Normann would design their own letter ’n’ based off of their personal style. Each icon would then be added the collection, making it dynamic and ever growing. I developed some examples of what designers would possibly create for their letter ’n’ icon.

Here are the final deliverables I developed for Normann Copenhagen

Exhibition Poster

Business Card

The business card has a rotating wheel in between the two pieces, with different slabs of pattern. The window on each side of the card reveal a different logo as you spin the wheel.

Staff Uniform

Storefront Window

Hang Tag

Totebag

Coffee Cup

Pillow

Thanks for reading! This two month project taught me a lot about dynamic identities and forced me to be critical and delve deeper into what makes an identity stick. Thank you to my professor Nana for the ever supportive advice and guidance on this project and to my classmates for their observant suggestions during our critiques.

-Keenan