A brand identity for a watch boutique on Berkeley Square, London. We took the plan of the square, the park at its centre, the four gates, the east, west and south wings, and read it as a clock face. That idea, drawn through Mayfair architecture, became the monogram.
The primary lockup
The idea
A square that keeps time
Look at Berkeley Square from above and it behaves like a watch. The central garden is the dial. The gates sit at the top like the twelve. The three wings run off the green like hands held still.
We pulled that geometry into a single mark. The outer gate is the case, the cruciform inside reads as crossed hands, and the pointed finials echo the iron railings that ring the real square. It is a watch and an address at the same time.
Gold on charcoal, charcoal on white
12
Gates as the hour
3
Wings, east west south
01
Cruciform mark
W1
Mayfair postcode
Construction and clearspace, drawn on a single X-height grid
Palette
One warm gold, drawn from the brass of a watch bezel, against the charcoal of a wet London pavement. White does the rest. There is no fourth colour, and there does not need to be.
Reckless for the headline, Proxima Nova for everything else
A gold diamond field for linings, end papers and packaging
The system, applied
How we approached it
01
Read the square as a clock
Berkeley Square is laid out like a watch face. The park sits at the centre like a dial, four gates mark the top, and the east, west and south wings run off it like hands at rest. The monogram is that plan, abstracted: a vertical gate enclosing a cruciform that holds the same poise as a stopped second hand.
02
Borrow the bones of Mayfair
We spent the research phase in London architecture rather than in watch catalogues. The wrought-iron railings, the Georgian door surrounds, the lampposts along the square. The pointed finials on the mark come straight off that ironwork, so the brand belongs to the address before it belongs to the product.
03
A boutique, not a department store
A watch on Berkeley Square is bought slowly, by appointment, over a conversation. The identity is built for that pace. Wide margins, a single serif, gold used as a line rather than a fill. It reads as confidence, which is the only thing a buyer at this level is really paying for.
04
One mark, many surfaces
The cruciform monogram had to survive being foil-stamped on a gift box, embroidered on a polo, and printed two-up on a wine carrier for a client event. We drew it as line work for exactly that reason, so it holds at the size of a cufflink and at the height of a shopfront.
Opening a boutique that needs to feel like the address?
Watches, jewellery, anything where the brand is read slowly and the detail has to hold up close.