Global brand design consultancy, Elmwood, have revealed an exciting new identity for legendary men’s grooming range LYNX (AXE as it is known globally). Famed for its world-class campaigns, Elmwood worked with Unilever to create a unique and sophisticated look and feel, that gives guys the edge in the mating game.
With the brand very well known globally, Elmwood needed to create a new aesthetic for LYNX that both built retention and helped introduce the brand to new audiences.
“Working closely with the AXE team, Elmwood refreshed individual stories for each fragrance – from emerald green lightening bolts for space variant Apollo to dark swirling shapes for Dark Temptation. These were devised to work with totally new packaging hardware, a unique half square, half round ‘squound’ shape that gave a large blank canvass to work continuously over two sides.
On sprays, the patterns wrap around the side to create a purely graphic face, literally giving an edge to the design, while for the shower gel and hair products the shapes work as daring explosions of color. “
Elmwood also re-worked the LYNX and AXE logotypes, using a break in the X as a nod to the male X and Y chromosomes.
“We challenged Elmwood to give Axe a powerful new brand identity. A design aesthetic that would reach a new generation of design-savvy men. However, rather than just creating a new visual aesthetic, Elmwood cleverly integrated each of our iconic fragrance stories with the new pack structure. Using the ‘square round edge’ as the anchor to dramatize the illustrations across the front and side of the packs giving them a more contemporary feel. Elmwood demonstrated that they really got the Axe brand from the outset, and helped creatively push our thinking beyond the traditional structural-graphic relationship injecting a fresh sense of youthful sophistication into our body spray and deos range.”
