Revitalizing the identity of a heritage-rich establishment like Liberty London requires a careful balance of reverence and reinvention. This prestigious department store, revered not only for its architectural splendor on Great Marlborough Street but also for its eclectic blend of fashion, beauty, design, and homeware, stands as a cultural pillar in the capital. Founded by Arthur Lasenby Liberty in 1875, the store has consistently curated a distinctively luxurious retail experience, blending artisanal craftsmanship with daring eccentricity.
When renowned design firm Pentagram London, under the creative leadership of Harry Pearce, undertook the rebranding project, the brief was far more than just visual aesthetics. It called for a narrative of evolution—a visual and typographic storytelling device that would encapsulate Liberty’s prestigious legacy while carrying its spirit vibrantly into the contemporary sphere.
Honouring Legacy While Embracing the Future
In approaching Liberty’s rebranding, Pentagram faced the challenge of retaining a brand that symbolizes quintessential British luxury while making it accessible and resonant in a modern retail landscape. The creative approach required reverence for Liberty’s intricate past—both in the physical embodiment of the building and the emotional attachment of its clientele—while sculpting an identity with fluidity and foresight.
This transformation had to account not only for Liberty's central London presence but also for its global recognition. Whether experienced by loyal London patrons or by international customers discovering Liberty for the first time, the identity had to exude both timelessness and modernity. Pentagram’s solution wasn’t about transformation through disruption, but through precise, almost surgical refinement.
A Refined Logotype Inspired by the Original Liberty Sign
The recent revitalization of Liberty’s brand identity by Pentagram London is anchored by a carefully redrawn logotype—an element both rooted in history and profoundly forward-thinking. It stands not merely as a graphic mark but as a tangible symbol of Liberty’s journey through time. Rather than designing a completely new visual signature, the team at Pentagram, led by Harry Pearce, chose a path of refinement, lifting the spirit and letterforms from Liberty’s historic signage on Great Marlborough Street. In doing so, they offered a respectful evolution rather than a reinvention.
At the core of this redrawn identity lies a unique typographic character. One of its most subtle yet symbolically weighty additions is the inclusion of a period at the end of the logotype—a full-stop that mirrors the punctuation seen in the original metal signage above the flagship store. Far from ornamental, this tiny addition adds finality, sophistication, and a certain poise, reinforcing the brand’s stature as a definitive authority in luxury retail.
Designed for high flexibility, this bespoke logotype was created not just for display, but as an expandable tool. It can stretch, compress, rotate, and duplicate across various platforms, from elegant carrier bags and woven labels to immersive in-store displays and digital campaigns. Its adaptability ensures that it never loses essence, even when reimagined creatively for different touchpoints.
Drawing History into the Present: The Role of Typography in Brand Evolution
The careful redrawing of the Liberty logotype highlights the critical role of typographic craftsmanship in shaping a brand's persona. Rather than generating an abstract identity with arbitrary trends, Pentagram harnessed the typographic DNA embedded in Liberty’s architectural signage. By interpreting the original lettering, the designers retained the visual cadence of the past while aligning it with the expectations of a digitally native audience.
This evolution transforms Liberty's logotype into more than a branding tool—it becomes an emblem of storytelling. It whispers of Edwardian elegance while adapting to contemporary expectations. The revised characters bear confident proportions, sophisticated curves, and calculated spatial rhythm, delivering a striking first impression that maintains warmth and familiarity.
Furthermore, the full-stop addition symbolizes completeness and authority. It is a punctuation mark that silently signals confidence and longevity. Used intentionally in a logotype, it hints at a narrative with heritage, one that requires no embellishment to assert its position.
Flexibility at Its Finest: A Logotype Designed for Dynamic Application
A powerful identity in today’s omnichannel environment must go beyond being visually attractive. It must perform. Pentagram’s redrawn Liberty logotype is designed not just to look beautiful, but to function across a multiplicity of forms and environments. This flexibility is where its genius lies.
Whether scaled down on a clothing tag or magnified for a seasonal storefront installation, the logotype retains clarity and integrity. Its flexible design system allows it to be bent, layered, repeated, or abstracted depending on the context. In digital campaigns, it takes on an expressive quality—merging with patterns, animations, and photographic elements without losing identity. On printed materials, it returns to its classical roots, presenting itself with calm sophistication.
This elastic approach to branding creates a living identity system—one that evolves while remaining grounded. It aligns perfectly with Liberty’s brand ethos, which has always fused tradition with the avant-garde. The result is a mark that lives, breathes, and adapts without ever compromising its soul.
Elevating Visual Equity: How Legacy Shapes Perception
For a heritage brand like Liberty, visual equity is both a strength and a challenge. On one hand, it commands immediate recognition, evoking images of carved wood, floral textiles, and art nouveau interiors. On the other, it can risk stagnation if not periodically reinterpreted. Pentagram’s redrawing of the logotype doesn't attempt to escape Liberty’s legacy; instead, it draws from it with deliberate restraint.
This is especially significant in an age when consumers seek authenticity and provenance. The refined Liberty wordmark signals history without becoming stuck in it. It invites new audiences while assuring long-standing customers that the soul of Liberty remains untouched. Its recognizability lies in its idiosyncrasies—those subtle quirks and contours that resist homogenization.
The decision to base the new logotype on the original sign above the store was more than a stylistic gesture; it was an act of preservation. It honors the visual memory embedded in the minds of countless visitors over the decades, maintaining continuity while enhancing usability.
Typographic Expression as Brand Personality
A brand’s typeface and logotype often carry more expressive weight than imagery or color. In Liberty’s case, this expression becomes a distinct voice—one that is refined, whimsical, and self-assured. The redrawn letterforms reflect Liberty’s unapologetic eccentricity. Their curves hint at the ornate but remain structured and minimal, a nod to both the classical and the contemporary.
Typography here acts as a visual tone. The low x-height and symmetrical proportions of the characters contribute to an intimate, bespoke feel. It’s not the type of logotype that screams—it converses in gentle, compelling tones. This typographic voice sets the tone for the entire brand experience, reinforcing Liberty’s unique position in luxury retail: indulgent but never ostentatious, curated but never clinical.
By emphasizing these distinct typographic characteristics, Pentagram has not only reestablished Liberty’s visual authority but has also carved out a recognizably British elegance that transcends trends.
Seamless Integration Across Digital and Physical Realms
In today’s retail ecosystem, a logotype must transcend printed paper and static signage—it must also thrive in fluid digital environments. The newly refined Liberty logotype accomplishes this with poise. It translates seamlessly from smartphone screens to textile labels, from mobile apps to the ornate facades of the department store itself.
This integration ensures that the Liberty brand remains coherent no matter where or how it is encountered. Consumers browsing the Liberty website see the same brand DNA echoed in their product packaging. Visitors stepping into the flagship store recognize the logotype in subtle etched brass details and hand-crafted displays. Such cohesion fosters a stronger emotional relationship between brand and customer, reinforcing trust and admiration.
Moreover, this digitally resilient design allows for responsive deployment across platforms. It is equally legible on high-resolution retina screens as it is engraved on physical materials. Whether animated in motion graphics or static in editorial layouts, the logotype maintains its poise and elegance.
Beyond Ornamentation: A Design of Lasting Relevance
The strength of Liberty’s new logotype lies not just in its aesthetics, but in its philosophical underpinnings. It moves beyond ornamentation to serve as an emblem of heritage, innovation, and brand character. It does not strive for gimmicks or momentary appeal. Instead, it is a design intended to endure—carrying the Liberty name through another century of cultural and commercial evolution.
By revisiting and refining rather than discarding the past, Pentagram demonstrates that innovation does not always require disruption. Sometimes, the most powerful progress lies in subtle refinement. This quiet revolution gives Liberty a future-proof identity—one that can evolve further without losing cohesion or clarity.
Ultimately, Liberty’s redrawn logotype is more than an element of design—it’s a cultural artifact. It encapsulates a story, a philosophy, and a brand that is loved by many, resonating as both familiar and fresh. This thoughtful reimagining positions Liberty not just as a destination for curated luxury, but as a visual benchmark in how heritage can be modernized with grace and substance.
The Crest Reimagined for Contemporary Visual Culture
Alongside the logotype, Pentagram reinterpreted Liberty’s historic crest—an element long embedded in the store’s visual DNA. The design team approached this component with restraint, removing ornamental density in favor of a cleaner silhouette that exudes modern sophistication. It now appears more like a whisper of the past than a heavy-handed emblem.
Accompanied by the inscription "London 1875," the revitalized crest underscores Liberty's origin story without overwhelming the primary branding. Its strategic use allows it to function as a secondary identifier—most effective in international markets where British heritage remains a powerful commercial asset. In contexts requiring a greater emphasis on tradition, such as packaging for export or capsule collections, the crest enriches the visual palette without interrupting Liberty’s contemporary tone.
Introducing Lasenby Sans: A Distinctive Typeface with Enduring Charm
In the heart of Liberty’s brand renewal lies a striking typographic centerpiece—Lasenby Sans. Developed in collaboration between Pentagram London and the acclaimed Colophon Foundry, this custom typeface pays homage to Liberty’s heritage while embracing the demands of a digital-first design era. The font is named after Arthur Lasenby Liberty, the visionary founder whose ethos of aesthetic innovation still defines the department store’s identity. Lasenby Sans is not just a typeface—it is a distilled expression of Liberty's character: refined, expressive, and idiosyncratic.
This typeface is a departure from uniform minimalism that dominates many contemporary retail brands. It exudes individuality through nuanced details, including elegantly tapered terminals and a uniquely sculpted ‘E’ reminiscent of the Greek Epsilon. These subtleties are not decorative flourishes but carefully chosen forms that evoke Liberty’s tradition of embracing the offbeat and the beautifully unusual. With a deliberately low x-height and generous spacing, Lasenby Sans establishes both a grounded authority and an emotional rhythm—a visual language as inviting as the store itself.
A Typeface Rooted in Storytelling and Heritage
The creation of Lasenby Sans was not an arbitrary design exercise; it was a carefully orchestrated endeavor to give Liberty a typographic voice that harmonizes with its legacy. Drawing from the brand’s historical logotype and early architectural inscriptions, the design team extracted motifs that could translate past grandeur into modern form. This wasn’t about mimicking vintage aesthetics—it was about interpreting them with subtlety and clarity.
Every glyph of Lasenby Sans carries intentionality. Its curves possess a sculptural elegance that references the decorative arts movement that Liberty helped champion in the late 19th century. Simultaneously, the structural geometry lends the typeface a sense of order and function, enabling it to navigate the complex interplay between tradition and progress.
Through typographic storytelling, Lasenby Sans becomes an essential part of Liberty’s identity ecosystem. Whether whispering in the subtext of product labels or making declarations across storefronts, the font never loses its unmistakable tone. It is eloquent without shouting, stylized without affectation.
Balancing Eccentricity and Elegance in a Digital Age
In today’s hyper-digital retail environment, where branding lives across social media, mobile apps, email campaigns, and packaging, typographic agility is paramount. Lasenby Sans was created with versatility at its core, designed to function seamlessly across digital platforms without losing the elegance and eccentricity that define Liberty.
Its letterforms retain clarity at small sizes and become charismatic when scaled. On digital banners and social media posts, the font brings a curated yet contemporary voice. On the Liberty website, it delivers seamless legibility while echoing the refined store ambiance. Lasenby Sans becomes a chameleon in the best sense—adapting to its surroundings while maintaining its core identity.
What elevates it even further is its rare ability to feel personal in a digital landscape often dominated by impersonal sans-serifs. Lasenby Sans achieves the delicate balance of being both expressive and legible, eccentric yet functional, grounded yet effervescent. These dichotomies make it the perfect representation of Liberty's own identity as a brand that thrives on contradiction and contrast.
Typography as Brand Identity: Beyond the Visual
Typography is more than form—it is voice, emotion, and cultural signal. With Lasenby Sans, Liberty has equipped itself with a tool that speaks volumes before a single product is seen. The font communicates Liberty's distinct position in the world of luxury fashion and homeware: one that prioritizes storytelling, personality, and craftsmanship over generic gloss.
From editorial headlines in seasonal lookbooks to wayfinding signage in the store's timber-clad interior, the font plays a multidimensional role. It becomes a voice of sophistication and warmth, commanding yet inviting. Its visual rhythm echoes Liberty’s own product curation—thoughtful, eclectic, and elevated.
This bespoke typeface also serves as an anchor in Liberty’s typographic hierarchy. Used in tandem with complementary fonts, it enables a layered communication style. Paired with the Portrait serif from Commercial Type, Lasenby Sans gains gravitas in storytelling. When juxtaposed with the pragmatic Akzidenz Grotesk BQ, it lends structure and contrast, allowing for an ecosystem where each typographic element plays a role in the narrative.
Crafting Identity Through Contrast and Collaboration
The decision to work with Colophon Foundry reflects Liberty’s commitment to artisanal expertise and meticulous attention to detail. Known for producing expressive and purposeful type design, Colophon brought a unique sensibility to the process—melding technical rigor with typographic artistry.
The collaborative design process between Pentagram and Colophon was deeply research-driven. Archival exploration, architectural study, and brand analysis informed each iteration of Lasenby Sans. This methodical crafting ensured that every curve, counter, and corner of the typeface aligned with Liberty’s broader brand vision.
Lasenby Sans isn’t just a stylized choice—it’s a cultural and historical response to Liberty’s heritage. Its elegance lies in its contradictions: it is bespoke yet adaptable, ornamental yet precise, expressive yet utilitarian. These qualities make it more than a typeface—it becomes a manifestation of the Liberty experience.
Unifying Physical and Digital Brand Expressions
One of the greatest challenges modern retailers face is maintaining visual cohesion across every consumer touchpoint. Liberty’s rebranding meets this challenge with intelligence, and Lasenby Sans plays a pivotal role in creating a unified brand atmosphere. Whether encountered in a print advertisement, an in-app interface, or embossed on a product tag, the typeface delivers consistency without uniformity.
This unification extends beyond aesthetic. It fosters brand trust, recognition, and emotional resonance. In the Liberty store, the typeface seamlessly integrates into signage and merchandising with a tactile quality that speaks to craftsmanship. Online, it gives Liberty a digital signature that stands apart from template-driven e-commerce sites.
Furthermore, Lasenby Sans holds up under the pressures of responsive design. On mobile, it remains legible and charismatic. On large-format displays, it reveals its sculptural beauty. This adaptability ensures that Liberty’s message is never lost, no matter the scale or medium.
Future-Proof Design for a Storied Institution
In creating Lasenby Sans, Liberty has ensured that its visual language will not be swept aside by passing typographic trends. The font’s nuanced character and historical anchoring make it inherently resistant to obsolescence. It does not rely on novelty to stand out but on the quiet power of craft and coherence.
This is particularly crucial for a brand like Liberty, which straddles tradition and transformation. The typeface offers longevity by capturing the paradox at the heart of Liberty: a brand that is both rooted and restless, classic yet unconventional. Lasenby Sans offers a timeless visual foundation for new collaborations, capsule collections, seasonal campaigns, and future digital innovations.
It is this durability that elevates Lasenby Sans beyond mere branding. It becomes an asset with enduring value—an identity element that can grow with Liberty as it continues to redefine luxury retail in the years ahead.
A Colour Story Rooted in Royalty, Enhanced by Modern Nuance
At the heart of Liberty’s recent brand evolution lies a deliberate and richly considered chromatic transformation. Color, though often overlooked in strategic branding, plays a pivotal role in emotional storytelling and consumer perception. In Liberty's case, its flagship hue—an unmistakable, noble shade of purple—has long served as both a visual signature and a conceptual anchor. Deep, enigmatic, and evocative of regality, this particular purple is more than just a color; it is a symbol of Liberty London’s dedication to individuality, design excellence, and artisanal heritage.
The reimagining of Liberty’s color palette under Pentagram’s guidance did not discard tradition. Instead, it celebrated and expanded upon it. The primary shade of purple remains proudly central, but the addition of new supporting tones—matte gold, jet black, soft ivory white, and muted accent colors—has elevated the brand’s visual identity to new realms of sophistication and adaptability. These refined additions bring with them an emotional nuance and textural richness that echo Liberty’s dual legacy of eccentric British charm and modern luxury retail.
This updated palette is not merely aesthetic; it is strategic. It delivers brand consistency across varied media, enhances visual hierarchy, and supports Liberty’s mission to remain iconic yet progressive. Whether applied in the context of print packaging, digital advertising, architectural installations, or social media platforms, the color system ensures a unified, immersive experience.
Purple as a Cultural and Commercial Signifier
The enduring use of purple in Liberty’s identity cannot be overstated. Historically linked to nobility, creativity, and mysticism, this hue naturally aligns with Liberty’s ethos of cultivated individuality. In a market saturated with sanitized minimalism, the color gives Liberty a regal presence that is instantly recognizable. Its tonal depth sets it apart, evoking a sense of legacy without rigidity.
More than a mere branding convention, Liberty's purple functions as an emotional trigger. Customers associate it with quality, history, and artistic expression. It evokes the architectural character of Liberty’s iconic Tudor building, as well as the richly layered fabrics and textures that the store has long curated. In essence, this singular color threads the emotional tapestry of Liberty's brand narrative.
The digital rendering of purple was also re-engineered for consistency across screen-based experiences. Adjustments in contrast and luminance ensure that it retains its richness on mobile interfaces, app layouts, and responsive web environments without fading into anonymity.
Introducing New Hues: Balancing Heritage with Contemporary Sophistication
To complement the dominant purple, Pentagram introduced a refined collection of supporting tones. Each shade was chosen not simply for contrast, but for resonance with Liberty’s material culture—its product range, historical roots, and future-facing ambitions.
Matte gold serves as a secondary hero color, providing an understated opulence. Unlike high-gloss metallics, this variant of gold has a velvety finish that evokes craftsmanship and subtle elegance. Used sparingly, it brings dimension and visual intrigue to packaging, event collateral, and printed matter.
Stark black was included not just for its neutrality, but for its ability to heighten sophistication and dramatize negative space. It provides gravitas and frames other colors with a refined precision. White, meanwhile, operates as a visual breather—introducing clarity, purity, and legibility across all formats.
These additions form a dynamic chromatic framework. The palette is designed to shift tonally depending on application: festive in promotional campaigns, serene in editorial contexts, and authoritative in corporate communications. This elasticity ensures that Liberty’s identity is never static but always coherent.
Emotional Design Through Chromatic Expression
In the realm of emotional design, color is a silent but powerful communicator. Liberty’s updated palette is engineered to elicit layered emotional responses—from intrigue and nostalgia to serenity and trust. The key lies in the interplay of hues rather than individual colors. By orchestrating how shades interact and contrast, Liberty is able to craft nuanced visual experiences tailored to diverse consumer touchpoints.
For example, combining purple with matte gold in premium packaging evokes a sense of ceremonial unboxing, ideal for Liberty’s high-end gifting segment. When paired with white and subtle muted tones, the same purple becomes softer and more approachable—perfect for communicating seasonal offerings or lifestyle editorials.
This flexible emotional bandwidth allows Liberty to maintain its singular voice across audience types. From loyal London shoppers who view Liberty as a historical fixture, to new international consumers discovering the brand online, the color story delivers a universally compelling experience.
Branding in Motion: How Color Supports Dynamic Media
Modern branding must live in motion. Digital environments—from animated product pages to branded Instagram reels—require a color system that can hold coherence across dynamic states. Liberty’s color palette is calibrated to perform fluidly across these conditions.
Purple, when animated, transitions gracefully through gradients without losing saturation. Gold accents shimmer subtly in motion graphics, enhancing moments of delight without visual clutter. The contrast between black and white ensures that typography and key messaging remain legible across all digital formats, including high-contrast themes for accessibility.
This motion-capable color palette supports Liberty’s push toward a more immersive digital presence. Whether viewed in cinematic brand films or interactive mobile experiences, the palette maintains visual authority and recognizability without rigidity. This cohesion in color not only strengthens Liberty’s digital identity but sets a new standard in how heritage brands evolve online.
Tactility and Color in Packaging Design
Color doesn’t only live on screens—it also lives on textures. In Liberty’s reimagined packaging and printed materials, color is paired with tactility to create multi-sensory brand moments. The matte finishes, subtle embossing, foil accents, and dyed paper stocks used across Liberty’s printed outputs serve to elevate the emotional experience.
Purple becomes immersive when wrapped around thick paper bags with soft-touch lamination. Gold foil embossing catches the light at different angles, adding depth and surprise. Even the choice of black ink density in tissue paper printing has been calibrated to maintain aesthetic cohesion.
By bringing physicality and color together, Liberty’s packaging doesn’t just serve as a carrier—it becomes a cherished artifact. Consumers are likely to keep it, reuse it, or associate it with meaningful personal moments. This contributes directly to Liberty’s brand loyalty, reinforcing its presence in consumers’ everyday lives.
A Palette for Place: Embedding Liberty’s Sense of London
Color plays an important role in evoking Liberty’s physical place. The flagship store’s Tudor Revival façade, with its carved wood beams and stained-glass windows, provides a distinct architectural character that inspires the entire palette. The purples mirror the aged timber, the gold evokes interior brass fittings, the black echoes cast-iron flourishes, and the whites reflect the building’s handcrafted porcelain and stoneware.
This site-specific inspiration ensures that Liberty’s branding remains intrinsically tied to London. It becomes not just a department store, but a symbol of British craftsmanship and design legacy. When experienced abroad—on international e-commerce platforms or global packaging—the color palette functions as a mnemonic device, subtly transporting consumers to the store’s historic epicenter.
By grounding color in both material culture and physical architecture, Liberty ensures that its brand identity is not only memorable but immersive. Every visual interaction tells a story of place, purpose, and provenance.
Timelessness in Color: Building for Longevity
In a design landscape driven by ephemeral trends, Liberty’s color palette offers something rare—timelessness. Rather than chasing seasonal colorways or fleeting Pantone picks, the new palette is structured for endurance. It is grounded in symbolic value, sensory appeal, and application logic.
This strategic timelessness is particularly important for a brand that exists at the intersection of fashion, interiors, and culture. Liberty cannot afford visual obsolescence; its brand equity depends on the ability to feel forever current without pandering to novelty. The redefined palette delivers this balance, preserving historical gravitas while remaining fully adaptable.
In every format—be it carrier bags, store signage, app icons, or editorial layouts—this thoughtful color system empowers Liberty to continue evolving while staying anchored in its authentic identity. It transforms branding from a static label into an ongoing conversation—rich in tone, textured in meaning, and enduring in memory.
A Flexible Identity Built for Multi-Platform Expression
One of the most forward-thinking aspects of Pentagram’s rebrand is the creation of a truly elastic visual system. Liberty’s identity is no longer confined to traditional signage or luxury print collateral. It has been engineered for omnichannel deployment—from social media and mobile apps to experiential activations and event environments.
Rather than imposing a rigid template, Pentagram built a toolkit—a series of modular assets, from typography to iconography, textures to photographic styles. These tools allow Liberty’s internal design teams and collaborators to generate brand-consistent content that still feels alive and variable. The brand can now move dynamically between contexts while retaining an unmistakable identity.
The new design extends across every conceivable touchpoint—shopping bags, gift boxes, swing tags, staff uniforms, in-store signage, wayfinding systems, newsletters, web banners, app icons, and more. This universal consistency ensures brand recognition while allowing the storytelling to evolve across different audience segments.
Reinventing Heritage for a New Generation
What Pentagram has achieved through this rebrand is a subtle redefinition of what heritage means in a modern retail context. Rather than treating history as a static archive, the new Liberty identity breathes life into tradition—reimagining it, reframing it, and presenting it anew.
This is not a rebrand in the conventional sense—it’s more a recalibration. By looking backward with intention and forward with imagination, Pentagram has ensured that Liberty can continue to speak to its loyal clientele while simultaneously enticing new audiences attuned to contemporary design sensibilities.
The thoughtful redesign reflects a business ready for global storytelling—one that preserves its distinctive British flair while offering a resonant message in every cultural context. Liberty no longer has to shout to be seen; its aesthetic quiet confidence speaks volumes.
The Ongoing Rollout: Phasing in a Modern Classic
The full brand rollout is being implemented in careful phases. From seasonal marketing campaigns to curated product lines and flagship interiors, each element is introduced with strategic precision. Liberty’s newly developed identity will eventually be omnipresent across both online and physical realms.
Digital platforms are receiving updated UI/UX treatments, infused with the revised fonts and color schemes. Print materials, from lookbooks to catalogues, now feature the new typographic hierarchy and visual rhythm. Even ephemeral items like swing tags and wrapping paper now play their part in narrating Liberty’s refreshed persona.
The result is a unified and richly layered experience—an identity that doesn't just brand a store, but elevates it to the status of a living design archive. Every detail, from a single glyph to a patterned box, now contributes to an intricate, immersive brand tapestry.
Liberty’s Legacy Reimagined with Precision and Poise
As Liberty moves into this new chapter, it does so with a renewed sense of self—not abandoning its past, but allowing it to guide the way forward. The Pentagram team has successfully distilled Liberty’s core attributes—eccentricity, luxury, originality, and craftsmanship—into a coherent, modern design language that will endure.
This reimagined identity signals Liberty's intent: to remain at the forefront of high-end retail not just through product offering, but through brand expression. It stands as a masterclass in sensitive rebranding, where the past is not erased but elegantly refracted through the lens of modernity.
By building an identity system that is as rich and intricate as Liberty itself, Pentagram has not only elevated a brand—they've re-energized a legend.
Final Thoughts:
The rebranding of Liberty by Pentagram is far more than a design refresh—it is a nuanced dialogue between history and modernity, executed with reverence, intelligence, and restraint. This transformation is not about loud innovation or stylistic overhaul, but about rediscovering the essence of Liberty and translating it into a contemporary visual language that retains the poetry of the past while embracing the promise of the future.
Every decision in the new brand system—be it the handcrafted logotype inspired by the store’s original signage, the delicately modernized crest, or the tailored Lasenby Sans typeface—demonstrates a profound understanding of what Liberty represents. These aren’t arbitrary design choices; they are cultural artifacts reinterpreted with precision. Even the inclusion of a period in the logotype becomes a quiet act of storytelling, subtly anchoring the identity in its historic roots.
What’s especially remarkable is the brand’s newfound flexibility. Liberty's refreshed visual system is no longer static—it’s dynamic, expressive, and modular. It doesn’t rely on repetition to enforce recognition; instead, it relies on coherence, character, and charm. The visual identity can stretch across digital environments, international markets, and physical merchandise with equal effectiveness. This adaptability ensures not just relevance but endurance in a fast-changing retail landscape.
Moreover, Liberty’s branding now speaks with greater emotional resonance. The mix of classic purple with refined black, white, and gold reflects the dichotomy of its identity—luxurious yet accessible, traditional yet daring, opulent yet grounded. It’s a brand ready for a new generation of consumers who seek authenticity, detail, and storytelling behind every purchase and interaction.
In today’s market, where branding often succumbs to fleeting trends or uniform minimalism, Liberty’s rebrand stands apart. It celebrates eccentricity, preserves craftsmanship, and exudes an unmistakable sense of place. Pentagram has not just rebranded a department store; they’ve reawakened a cultural icon with a future-facing identity that is as thoughtful as it is beautiful.
As Liberty steps into its next century, it does so not as a relic, but as a living legend—revitalized, relevant, and ready to inspire.
