Three golds and a silver in New York, and why the Norwex work still means so much to me
Last month the Norwex brand and packaging work we created with our friends at The Workroom won three golds and a silver at the Transform Awards North America in New York. Our founder Joseph Hedges looks back on the partnership behind it and why this project still means so much to him.
by Joe Hedges
Last month we were at the Edison Ballroom in New York for the Transform Awards North America, and the Norwex brand and packaging work we created with our friends at The Workroom received three golds and a silver. I've been to a fair few of these evenings over the years and I'm not sure the feeling ever gets old.
The project was recognised in four categories. Gold for Best Brand Evolution (Corporate), gold for Best Brand Evolution (Consumer), gold for Best Visual Identity from the Lifestyle and Wellbeing Sector, and silver for Best Brand Development Project to Reflect a Change of Mission, Values or Positioning.
For anyone who doesn't know Norwex, it's a Norwegian family business that was built more than thirty years ago on a single idea, a microfibre cloth that cleans with nothing but water. From that one product it grew into a global company with over 300 lines, sold from kitchen tables by a network of independent consultants, many of them mums working from home across North America. When Beate Hjeltnes took over as CEO she had ambitions to take the brand into personal care and skincare, and to do that the whole thing needed reframing, a clearer architecture, a more premium and authentically Nordic positioning, and packaging that could stretch from a cleaning cloth to a face cream without confusing the consumer. Within six months of the new identity landing, Norwex launched its first skincare range.
What I keep coming back to, though, is the partnership. Garden and Workroom are two independent studios who chose to build something together, and I think the results show what happens when two teams trust each other enough to argue well. It feels like the same quality the judges picked up on earlier this year in London, when the project took Best Overall Visual Identity at the Transform Awards Europe. To do it again on the other side of the Atlantic is very special.
Huge thanks to Transform magazine, to Beate and everyone at Norwex for backing a brave decision, and to the whole Workroom team. If you'd like to see more of the project, you can read the full case study here.
And if you're sitting on a brand that has outgrown the idea it was built on, we'd love to talk. Get in touch.
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