Premium British watch brand Christopher Ward’s new logo has been recognised with one of the advertising and design industry’s most prestigious awards – the D&AD Wood Pencil. Since 1962 the D&AD Pencil has represented the benchmark of advertising and design excellence, with the Wood Pencil specifically celebrating the best in advertising and design achievements.
Christopher Ward and design agency Hello, was commended for its new logo, bought into effect in 2016, to reflect the company’s real, no-nonsense and straight-forward business model and approach. The logo, which formed part of Christopher Ward’s wider 2016 rebrand, sought to create a more contemporary, dynamic look and feel that better reflected Christopher Ward’s ambition, place in the market and continuing success, as well as its merger with atelier Synergies Horlogères SA. At its launch, the logo was very well received by Christopher Ward’s customers, watch enthusiasts and the wider industry, despite the new incarnation departing considerably from its established predecessor.
The logo-focussed rebrand included: (1) The new logo graphic (which has won the Wood Pencil award) across the business, reflecting a stylized representation of the English and Swiss flags. (2) The text logo changing from ‘Chr.Ward’ to the simple and contemporary, ‘Christopher Ward’ in sans-serif font. (3) A new positioning for the text logo displayed on all new watches in the ‘quarter to’ position, instead of the industry-wide ’12 o’clock’ position.
Record financial performances
Since the rebrand, the company has continued to go from strength to strength, with post-rebrand total company performance up 39.5% and record financial performances in each month between October 2016 and January 2017. Mike France, co-founder of Christopher Ward, said: ‘Our new logo was created to encapsulate the next chapter of our story and depict where our brand identity and ambitions are going. Hello did a fantastic job at reflecting this in the design, but we knew it had the potential to divide opinion. We are extremely pleased and honoured that the logo has been recognised by D&AD Wood Pencil helping to mark the success of the rebrand and how well it has been received by our customers and the wider industry alike.’
