Pentagram’s Harry Pearce designs the brand identity for John Lewis’ new affordable range, Anyday

Pentagram partner Harry Pearce has created the brand identity for Anyday, a new range by John Lewis & Partners which launched at the end of last week. Aimed at a younger, more modern audience and an increasingly budget-conscious consumer market, the collection consists of 2,400 affordable yet quality pieces including homeware, children's wear and small electrical items, trend-driven by design.

Back in 2018, we sat down with Pearce for an in-depth chat on the brand revamp of the John Lewis Partnership which includes John Lewis and Waitrose, where he said “authentic brands really deserve sensitivity”. Now, in his work for Anyday, he expands on the brand identity to create a bold extension of the design system, one that is true to John Lewis’ values but also reflects Anyday’s “affordability, optimism and energy”.

Pearce tells It’s Nice That on the new identity: “We redrew the bespoke John Lewis cut of Gill as a stencil font to evoke the feeling of marketplaces. Raw and simple messaging, as would be found on packing cases.” Seen in a bright, burnt orange colour, the pared-back identity is “intended to reflect the down-to-earth nature of these products and make Anyday stand out amid the restrained approach to design we expect from John Lewis”.

The design team's intention was to create a look which completely contrasts John Lewis’ other brands. In this way, Anyday’s identity is a fresh injection to its current lines. Its stencil font and orange colour may seem like an unusual choice for the department store, but as Harry points out, “Solid orange has a wonderful power and utilitarian quality”.

When it comes to packaging, the colourway of orange, white and black are similarly enacted. Larger items display their content with illustrated silhouettes of the products on the side of the box, “taken straight from the style of graphics we see on packing cases,” Pearce describes. Product descriptions are then typed over the top of these images, hinting to a screen-printed aesthetic which complements the stencil logotype. The press release states how this, in turn, emphasises “practicality and simplicity... product photography is straightforward and not over-styled, with cut-out images on white backgrounds”.

A case of “bold and straightforward labelling,” Pearce says, the branding aims to be optimistic and friendly. The stencil logo can be used in a variety of ways, as a standard lock-up or as an overlay. It can also be expressed through various materials, applied by embossing or die-cutting and can be blown up or sized down to fit the store’s many needs. It is also designed to sit neatly alongside the John Lewis & Partners logotype, a representation of how the new range Anyday conveys “the idea of ‘value’ with pride and graphic joy”.