A bowtie hidden in an arrow, for a tailor who makes both

Client Moore DesignsIndustry Bespoke tailoring and menswearLocation Nigeria

About the client

Moore Designs is a bespoke tailoring and menswear house. The work a tailor sells is measured, cut and finished by hand for one person, and the brand had to carry that idea before anyone reads a word of copy.

The brief

One identity, built as a system rather than a logo file. It had to survive a 12mm embroidery on a cap, a five-metre illuminated sign over a shopfront, a woven label inside a collar, and a business card: four wildly different sizes with nothing in common but the mark.

The approach

The mark is two triangles set nose to nose. Read one way it is a play arrow pointing forward; read the other it is a bowtie, which is the object a menswear house is most identified by. Neither reading is decorative. The shape is a single geometric form with no fine detail, which is exactly what survives being stitched into a cap at thumbnail size and blown up onto a shopfront.

Colour does the separating. Navy carries the garments, the packaging and the storefront; gold picks out the second triangle and nothing else, so the mark keeps one accent instead of two competing ones. A triangle pattern derived from the same form gives the system a fill for linings, tissue and backgrounds without introducing a new element to learn.

Custom craftsmanship and cultural pride.

Moore Designs, on what the secondary palette exists to carry

In Lagos, customers still judge a tailor by the shopfront and the packaging before they even try the clothes. Ours finally look like they belong to the same business.

Moore Designs