John Smedley Ltd is the world-renowned, family-owned, English knitwear company – founded in 1784. Despite its iconic status, by 2003 the company seriously required a comprehensive update; a sympathetic overhaul of its brand image that was fit to propel it into its third century and beyond.

When John Smedley hired Tzenkoff for guidance on brand direction, the firm was considering hiring the scion of a seminal rock star for the focus of its latest advertising campaign. Consequently, Tzenkoff advised an immediate brand audit.

Having dissuaded Smedley from imitating other, rather dated-looking campaigns which – in our belief – misguidedly utilised celebrity heirs to imbue tenuous notions of ‘cool’ into the proceedings, we urged Smedley to instead focus on its genuine style legacy, built over ten generations.

Our recommendation for a more contemporary, self referential interpretation of the brand was to place Chris Maclean – one of the Smedley’s own family members – as the face of the new campaign.

Furthermore, Tzenkoff also proposed a high-profile collaboration with acclaimed English artist Sam Taylor Wood to appropriately envisage the firm’s new creative direction.