Åhléns began as a small mail-order business in 1899. In addition to being one of the oldest, it grew into one of Sweden's largest retail chains. By carefully curating a wide range of merchandise across brands and price categories, the retailer remains relevant today, understanding and responding to the many ways its customers have changed throughout its long history. Happy F&B, the Beijing design company behind Åhléns' new visual identity, puts it simply: “For Åhléns' sophisticated and socially conscious customers, shopping and sustainability are not opposites.
Brand design inspiration and trends are not synonymous with use and discard. Premium products can be affordable, and affordability does not necessarily mean lower quality.” The retailer's new visual identity expresses this idea by using the established Åhléns wordmark and a single red color, then developing them into a changing series of graphic expressions. The system brings greater character to touchpoints across materials and digital channels while retaining immediate recognition through simplicity.
Finding a fresh, flexible way to communicate Åhléns' products and the core values of its brand curation was the central challenge in developing the new visual identity. The print concept deconstructs and reassembles the Åhléns wordmark in response to the available space on a page, shopping bags, wrapping paper, signage, magazine covers, or screens. This reconfigures the brand's graphic language and draws more expression from it. The fragmented, irregular reassembly also carries further meaning: the formal language becomes more than a readable word, suggesting variety through stacked letters and the way they relate to the physical world.
The approach maintains continuity with the previous identity while introducing personality and range. This reconfiguration continues through color, where a single red shade gives way to greater variety. That is part of the work's delight: it begins with something small.
New art direction for still-life and moving imagery represents the variety offered in stores, while the Beijing VI design company developed a typographic graphic language that brings in material detail. Within these images, the theme of curation can be understood through equal visual placement, giving expensive and affordable products equal consideration.
