Transforming a
sustainable brand
of luxury finishes

ArmourcoatRebrand

With 35 years in business, Armourcoat has a long-standing history as a market-leading supplier of luxury surface finishes. Providing end-to-end service, they create, manufacture and install a comprehensive range of surface finishes for architects, designers and private clients worldwide. Armourcoat has become synonymous with ingenuity, quality and luxury.

The Armourcoat team came to us to reinvigorate their brand and website. They needed a strategy and visual refresh to signal change and reflect their vision for a more sustainable future.

Services

Brand Strategy
Visual Identity & Guidelines
Website UX & UI Design
WordPress Development
Sample Packaging
Printed Collateral
Brand Awareness Campaign

A new strategic direction

With a heightened focus on sustainable development in the industry and a shift in client attitudes, the Armourcoat brand needed to communicate its vision and commitment to sustainability and innovation.

We created a road map for the brand, a brand strategy and positioning that communicated the essence of the Armourcoat experience – to leverage their heritage, increase focus on sustainability, help shape industry change, deepen client relationships and enrich the Armourcoat brand experience.

Working together

We took a collaborative approach to getting involvement from across the company. Our process included research into competitors, markets, and future trends. We conducted one-to-one interviews with staff, distributors, customers and media. This was all fed into a series of brand strategy workshops that helped define a clear brand strategy, and brand positioning, as a platform for growth.

Visual Identity

With clarity around the brand, we evolved the visual identity to reflect the vision and values of the brand. We developed a flexible design system to allow Armourcoat to communicate consistently across all touchpoints.

The refined logo carries a simple business descriptor. With it, we established a clear understanding of what the brand stands for, sustainable luxury finishes. An elegant reflection of their commitment to their craft and the future.

Their green colour is well known in the market but we added a lighter and darker shade to create a depth within the palette. To add a sense of luxury through the identity, we complimented the green with champagne tones and greys added calm and grounding. The colours all compliment each other to give an overall feeling of sustainability and luxury.

Iconography was created to highlight all the key features across each of their product ranges.

The typeface was chosen for its elegant yet deceptively simple look. It has a universally neutral appeal but upon closer inspection, some characters have tiny exquisite curves which gives the typeface a subtle sophistication and recognisable character. The beauty is in the detail – a perfect match for Armourcoat.

The Armourcoat brand pattern was designed to exude the luxurious feel of the high-end environments where their products are installed. The repeating ‘A’ pattern adds a textured layer to our designs.

Brand Imagery

Imagery is very important to how Armourcoat convey themselves as a brand. It not only allows them to demonstrate their products but to show their passion, ingenuity and culture. Their people are as important as their products. We produced mood boards to guide the photography shoot. As well as case study and product imagery Armourcoat needed to reflect their new brand – to show their craftsmanship, collaboration, and creation.

Brand Rollout

The new Armourcoat brand needed to be rolled out across all printed materials. From letterheads and business cards to range brochures, packaging and specification sheets, we weaved the brand elements through every artwork. A careful balance of sustainable and luxury was vital so sustainable recycled and recyclable stock was carefully sourced for all printed brochures and packaging.

Armourcoat stationery set - letterhead and business card

Website Design and Build

Alongside the new brand, Armourcoat challenged us to re-design their website. They needed a user-centric website to engage their audience of interior designers and architects with their products.

Ordering samples and specifying products were two key KPIs for Armourcoat’s new website. We designed a seamless experience from mega menu through to product and finish landing pages with clear call to actions at every stage and stunning imagery to really sell in the products.

Designers are now able to clearly switch between finishes, see the full colour range and easily order a sample through the new and improved cart functionality.

The new website has been met with positive feedback from Armourcoat customers which has been backed up by a significant increase in sample ordering since launch.

Brand Awareness Campaign

To reinforce the new brand strategy a brand awareness campaign was created. ‘Inspired by nature’ showcases the natural and sustainable aspect of the Armourcoat products.

We used bold, beautiful images from nature that have inspired the Armourcoat product ranges – each image being aligned to a specific product. We highlight the product with a simple square swatch and a QR code to find out more.

Online guidelines

To be consistent with the sustainability values of the Armourcoat brand we moved away from the traditional pdf guidelines – that have a tendency to be printed out – and delivered an online solution that is hosted with our green hosting supplier. We created the Armourcoat guidelines as an easy to use online hub for everything brand related.

The online guideline has a login that can easily be setup for partners and suppliers, meaning they will always have access to the most up-to-date brand assets.

The guideline acts a portal for all branding assets from logos and icons to a library of template files for advertising and documents.

A sustainable rebrand

The final rebrand and website launch coincided with the 2023 Surface Design Show, where Armourcoat showcased their complete range of sustainable finishes along with their new visual identity.

The reinvigorated brand was well received by internal and external audiences and truly sets Armourcoat on the path to a sustainable future.

Looking for a rebrand? Get in touch

“Orangery are a great agency to work with, always delivering novel work within our tight deadlines. They are truly invested in our brand and where we want to take it. The work is top notch and this has been validated by the response from our customers.”