Over the past few years, we noticed a boom in the number of stories about emerging Chinese designers and new home furnishing shops that combine the old with the new and the east with the west. These stories break the stereotypical view of Western style in favor of preserving traditional Chinese design. The opening of the market has allowed Chinese creatives to be free to explore new ideas and experiment with new designs; a situation unthinkable until a few years ago. This cultural shift is creating the ideal conditions for young talents and customers to cultivate interest in the world of design with a conscious social and cultural approach—meaning a new opportunity for Chinese high-quality brands. How a company producing laminate flooring could surf the wave of this opportunity?

For this leading chain in laminate flooring across Asia, we started with a question: What is the importance of a home, today? The house is above all an anthropological place, a place inhabited by humans, a place that embodies the theme of life. “I am” is synonymous with “I live”. Thus, the home is the basis of human life, a place where we are most ourselves, our ultimate comfort zone. The idea of the home then completely contradicts what we are told to do outside of it, in the external world— to leave our comfort zone to achieve greatness. Thus, the name was chosen: “LUZN”, “Live your zone”, paying tribute not only to the comfort of a life at home, but also to the company’s roots, the Swiss city of Luzern, from which their wooden floors are sourced. That’s how we created a new vision to shape the company’s future: We collaborated with designers from diverse backgrounds, executive management and board members to define a new shared vision for the future that would become our foundation for creative and design experimentation. We created a brand that included a new name, purpose, logo, design elements, and purpose that fits perfectly with their shared vision of the future. We housed a series of guidelines, inspiration, and resources in a Brand Experience Manual. A tool that allows architects, designers, marketing experts, and global agencies not only to use the new visual and verbal identity, but to coordinate elements ranging from the message to physical spaces, such as shops, all while strengthening the brand in every point of communication. We enjoyed working with a brand that puts innovation and craftsmanship at the center of every challenge, especially in a complex and stimulating market like the Chinese one. We truly believe this is a project with the potential to accelerate a sustainable transition, starting first from the place where comfort is born, home.