Agency: Sheridan&Co
Project Type: Produced, Commercial Work
Packaging Content: Shoes, shoelaces
Location: UK

Shoelaces breathe life into brand identity, product and packaging

Global design agency Sheridan&Co unveils LOOP, a new concept shoe design for the millennial market.

The design team was tasked with creating a unique and visually striking concept for a new shoe brand that targets a young, fashion-conscious market. The result is LOOP – a vibrant, playful leisure sports shoe that enables wearers to customise their look using different coloured shoelaces such as Black, Turquoise, Lemon and Pink.

The concept and design was inspired by simple, honest brands with strong identities but executed with minimal fuss – just good, clean and modern design. The customisation of the shoe draws on the current trend for personalisation as evidenced by Anya Hindmarsh’s popular ‘Sticker Shop’.

The brand identity resonates the simplicity of the shoe itself – a white, streamlined pump delineated using black-on-white hand drawn illustrations. The exaggerated looped composition of the shoelace, which also snakes around the entire packaging, provides simple yet effective embellishment to the look and brand mark. Century Gothic-style typography also nods to the curvature of the loop but in a contemporary way.

Building on this looped circular theme, the packaging itself is tubular, enabling the shoes to sit inside the box, one above the other. A block-coloured tray, executed in the same colour as the shoelace it presents, slides easily out of the tube allowing the pumps to be removed from the packaging seamlessly.

Colour is introduced to an otherwise monochrome palette via the lids, again executed in the same colour as the appropriate shoelace presented. The lids also act as transparent loop pods, encasing the different coloured shoelaces so they are visible to the eye.

A final dash of colour is harnessed in the shoelace handle of the tube, which allows the LOOP shoebox to be carried over the shoulder.

From vibrant accents of colour, to the exaggerated swirls of loops on the brand mark and packaging design – the shoelaces are presented as the real hero of the overall product presentation.

Meanwhile, the box itself was also designed to be functional to the point where – after the shoes have been removed – it can then go on to have a second life either storing random knickknacks or to even double up as a yoga matt carrier.

Michael Sheridan, founder of Sheridan&Co, comments: “LOOP takes a simple white fashion pump to a new level and creates a new identity and life to the branding and the product through customisable, vibrantly coloured laces. The final design is versatile, playful and relevant to the youth market as well as to more fashion-conscious urbanites.”

Sheridan&Co is best known for its work in designing retail environments for some of the world’s leading luxury brands including Laura Mercier, Chloe, L’Occitane, World of Whiskeys as well as UK’s well-known frozen yoghurt retailer brand YooMoo.