Founded in 1968, Primark is an Irish multinational fashion retailer that operates over 400 stores across Europe and the United States, with a staff of 80,000. Known as Penneys in Ireland, the company offers diverse fashion lines of men’s, women’s, and children’s clothing and footwear. A flexible discount system makes the brand rather popular among general consumers.
As part of a new business strategy, Primark has updated its visual identity, including a logo, a color palette, typography, as well as a new design element named The Portal. The rebranding was carried out by the London, UK-based design studio VCCP, which was selected in a multi-stage competition in August 2023.
Due to its business model, Primark is considered one of the world’s largest companies involved in the so-called fast fashion, which envisages a continuous update of the product range. While the brand is opening new stores in new locations, this is welcomed by local authorities hoping this will revitalize the retailing in downtowns. In recent years, Primark has strengthened its corporate management and public communications, focusing more on ethics, working conditions, and employee promotion.
The retailer unveiled its fresh look as part of the presentation of its summer collection “Viva Summer”. As Primark’s Chief Customer Officer Michelle McEttrick said, the company aspires to sustainable growth, ensuring that customers perceive Primark as a real global brand.
The all-caps sans-serif Primark wordmark has been in use since 2005. While the logo’s general design has remained the same, some small changes can still be seen at first glance: the spaces between the letters were somewhat enlarged, and the horizontal bar in the “A” and the upper stroke in the “K” are slightly curved now. As the company explains, this adjustment represents a “playful update”, and this does make sense when you look at the “A” which seems to smile in the new version.
The visual identity also includes a deeper light blue tone as the main brand color, as well as a custom typeface. Besides this, Primark acquired The Portal, a new visual asset representing a rounded opening formed to resemble a “p”. The element serves as a mask to overlay on photographs and graphic motifs, and thus it is described as a “window to the Primark world”, according to an official press release.
As an “evolutionary rebranding”, this may have been a relatively easy task with minimal cost, considering store and showcase design, printed matter, and other assets. We can suppose that the company could have considered this in advance. At least, the redesign didn’t bring a totally different logo or a new color system.
The smiling “A” is quite trendy as a stylish feature that is more common in digital media rather than in retail stores. However, this is a well-designed adjustment that can breathe life into a strict wordmark, giving the brand a certain emotional vibe. Plus, The Portal is surely a creatively strong element.
