The archive · Brand & Identity · Strategic decision · 2023–2024
Jarrolds redraws its 50-year-old lion with the store's J built into the mark
Department store Jarrolds kept the lion it had used for half a century and redrew it from scratch with the J of Jarrolds integrated into the lion itself.
Jarrolds
What it had to solve
Jarrolds, an independent department store founded more than 250 years ago, had used a lion as its brand logo for the past half century. During the rebrand, the designers debated whether the lion should stay.
How it works
Jarrolds, an independent department store founded more than 250 years ago, had been using a lion as its brand logo for the past half century. When the brand was refreshed, the lion's future became the central question.
During the creative process the team debated whether to retain the lion, and quickly realised the huge amount of brand equity it contributed. So instead of retiring it, they looked for a clever way to give the mark a new and more meaningful lease of life.
Their answer was to integrate the 'J' for Jarrolds into the lion itself, completely redrawing the animal from scratch into a new, more iconic and fit-for-purpose brand mark. A before/after film presented the transformation.
The new logo lets the store keep the recognition built over decades while the mark itself now carries the store's name. The work is held in the D&AD awards archive.
Why it lands
- Half a century of recognition is an asset: removing the lion would have erased the equity the rebrand existed to refresh.
- Putting the J inside the lion makes the mark carry both heritage and the store's name in one memorable device.
- Redrawing from scratch made the logo fit-for-purpose instead of a touched-up version of a dated drawing.
- The before/after film turned a logo change into a story the store could present to customers.
What it did
The rebrand keeps half a century of recognition while the mark now carries the store's initial inside it. The redrawn lion is more iconic and fit-for-purpose, and the work is held in the D&AD awards archive.
What you can take
Before retiring a dated logo, count the equity inside it: the strongest rebrand can put the new name into the old symbol, keeping recognition while making the mark say more.
Since then
The redrawn lion keeps Jarrolds' best-known asset while giving the mark a clearer job: it now contains the J of Jarrolds, so the symbol and the store's name agree in one device. The work is held in the D&AD awards archive.
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