Associated Media Publishing was awarded a silver FIPP Insights Award in the publishing (Best Commercial outcome Category) for the House & Leisure rebrand designed by Mutant.
Andrew Whitehouse, executive creative director of Mutant said: “We’re absolutely thrilled that the new House & Leisure brand identity work has been recognized and awarded on such a global platform. We’re really looking forward to the next disruptive project with Associated Media.”
The team at Mutant were presented with a challenge from Associated Media Publishing which involved questions such as how can the House & Leisure brand increase sales in the short term and how can the brand remain relevant to a new and emerging youth audience?
The solution? To reposition House & Leisure as a content brand and not just as a magazine brand as well as to redesign the identity to live on channels outside of the printed magazine which needed to start with the cover design. Working off an extremely cluttered newsstand, the Mutant team used design principles specifically to enhance the product.
Mutant’s design solution was to use shape and colour to build pattern recognition. The process started with the O in the logo wordmark and a complimentary holding device for the cover image. The O also represented the lens through which House & Leisure views the outside world and gives the editorial team an angle through which they can curate all their content and features.
Furthermore, the brand positioning was shortened to HERE / NOW, a nod to a new and youthful audience who prefer instant gratification while still holding true to their promise of celebrating the pleasures, the talent and the creativity of living in South Africa at present.
Launched in April 2019, House & Leisure saw a 28% increase in sales in the first three months of the rebrand which was only one of two consumer magazines to see an increase in South Africa.
“We had a clear vision, we collaborated beautifully with the House & Leisure team and we stuck to our guns on this. So, we’re very happy that not only did the work look fantastic, but that its delivered actual sales results for the business,” said Mark van Rooyen, MD of Mutant.
ABOUT MUTANT
Founded by Andrew Whitehouse and managed by Mark van Rooyen, Mutant is an award-winning identity design agency based in Cape Town. Mutant is a member of the FoxP2 Group and the Dentsu Aegis Network. To get in touch, email Mark van Rooyen or call the office on 021 424 4802
www.mutant.co.za
