In September 2022, former creative director of Bottega Venetta, Daniel Lee was back in the fashion world. This time as Chief Creative Officer for the perhaps most well-known British luxury fashion house: Burberry. The anticipation was high for his first collection, shown under this springs fashion week in London, was high.

Figure 1 — Promotional picture from the new collection. Courtesy: Burberry
In the build up to the show, something else caught people’s eye. For the second time in five years, Burberry was going through a rebranding. New logo and new font, marketed with music personalities such as the UK rapper SKEPTA. If you are like me, a marketeer, reading this, I know what you must be thinking: what a mess! A company with over 150 years of history, with two major overhauls in such a short period of time. However, this might be one of the smartest things the brand has done in newer time. Let me explain why and the important role of fonts in marketing.
You see back in 2018 when Burberry when through the first of their recent rebranding’s, they also changed both their font and logo. At the moment the logo received the most attention (for ALL the wrong reasons) but looking back the most interesting part is the change of font.
Fonts is not something the average person spends a lot of time thinking about. For us students that is something you usually think about in only one specific situation: when handing in a paper/exam. “Times New Roman, size 12”, you all know the drill. But despite schools’ failure to teach us so, fonts play an important part in marketing. A correctly chosen font helps in building the desired brand image. A poorly chosen font can build confusion and be a sign of incoherence inside the brand.
Take for example the Swedish furniture store, IKEA. Most people associate IKEA with words such as: practical, sensible, and conservative. Now take a look below: which font do you feel fits IKEA best?

Back to Burberry and the fashion world. You see when Burberry changed their font to sans- serif they weren’t the only ones. For some strange reason, that nobody seems to be able to explain, a lot of the other big luxury fashion houses did the same. A rebranding using sans- serif isn’t necessarily an issue, but it collides with the nature of luxury brands.

Figure 2 — Brands rebranding. Courtesy: Twitter
Anybody in the luxury sector can tell you that one of the most integral parts of a luxury brand, is their history. It is one of the criteria’s to be able to call oneself a luxury brand. Hermès, founded by Thierry Hermès in 1837. Prada, founded by Mario Prada in 1913. And of course, Burberry, founded in 1856 by Thomas Burberry. A generic sans-serif font is incoherent in the consumers eyes with a brand having a long history. Especially when so many brands go through the same change, at the same time.
This is the trend that Daniel Lee is now breaking with. He has re-introduced The Equestrian Knight Device (EKD) as the logo, which was the brands logo back in 1901. He has also changed the font. The sans-serif is still there, but in a new packaging. The new look pays homage to the brands archives, looks subtitle and feminine, and washes off any feeling of generic.

Figure 3 — The new logo and font observed in Milano. Courtesy: Private
In the near future it will be interesting to observe whether the other luxury brands also decide 5to scrap their logo/font for a more personal and nostalgic one. One thing is for certain: choosing a font is not an easy task, and should be done with care.
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