Global Men's Razor Brands Analysis/ Brand Strategy/ Brand Portfolio Strategy/ Product Line-ups/ Brand Naming/ Brand Slogan/ Brand Story Contents/ Brand Design Strategy/ Supergraphics/ Inforgraphics/ Symbol Logotype Design/ Applications/ Package Design/ Brand Guideline

DORCO is a 67-year-old Korean men’s razor brand, with a strong sense of heritage and reputation for quality. Its primary user group, however, is men aged between 40 and 50. As such, it approached the bread and butter to facilitate the generation of a new brand aimed at the 20-30 age group. We worked with the company to create SLEEK, a “BOLD. EDGY. PLAYFUL.” new brand that sits at the cutting edge, not just in the unparalleled quality of the shave, but also in its youthful, urban brand identity.

We positioned SLEEK as a lifestyle brand that serves as the linchpin of its users’ daily routines: all branding elements, from its slogan and messaging to its visual language and logo, center the customer’s journey and emphasize how strong design choices can positively impact user experience. Indeed, its name alone speaks to how its sleek blades allow consumers to achieve a sleek appearance.

This began by taking an innovative approach to product naming. The razor industry’s brand management tends to be highly numerical: products’ names reflect their number of blades (i.e. Gillette Fusion 5 or Mach 3). This vertical approach limits companies’ brand expansion to just adding more blades, restricting their room to innovate or offer meaningfully different user experiences.

Instead, we took a more horizontal approach to DORCO’s brand management that focuses on each products’ practical differences. This allows SLEEK to position itself as not only an affordable line, but also one that offers trendier, more experimental products. Not only did this approach revolutionize DORCO’s brand communication, but it also offers the industry a new brand management model more conducive to flexible expansion.

Indeed, this focus on innovation influenced our approach to SLEEK’s visual branding as well. While other men’s razor brands communicate functionality through product photography alone, SLEEK’s visuals ingrain its functionality into a layered visual language. A flexible series of supergraphics are layered over product images, allowing it to more powerfully convey its brand message.

These three supergraphics each represent a different aspect of SLEEK’s unique strengths:
Precise Shave replicates the blade patterning of SLEEK razors to intuitively communicate their superior technology
Smooth Shave’s angled pattern embodies the frictionless handling offered by SLEEK razors
Shaving Experience reflects the the flawless results that users can generate by using SLEEK products

Similarly, our broader branding also centers the user. SLEEK’s slogan, “Shaving to Perfection”, perfectly models how its products’ design and function (“shaving”) directly impact the user’s experience (“perfection”). In much the same way, the brand’s message “BOLD. EDGY. PLAYFUL.” speaks not to the technical specifications of its products, but the broader image it cultivates and offers the consumer: both its products and its users are characterized by these adjectives. All of this hinges around the brand’s core values—Innovation, Perfection and Impact—which articulate SLEEK’s mission of balancing technological innovation and excellence with impactful user experience.

Indeed, SLEEK’s visual design intends, above all else, to be striking: we want SLEEK to stand out on crowded shelves, and this goal drove our design choices. As such, we chose the distinctive Peridot Green as the brand’s primary color, to convey a sense of the youthful self-assurance and expressiveness that characterize both the brand and its users. Similarly, we adopted a bold typography in the logo to boost visibility and readability. Further, the logo’s slanted characters speak to its urban brand positioning, with notches in the ‘E’s playfully referencing the edgy facial hair slits that users can create with its razors.

Finally, SLEEK remains focused on sustainability and environmentalism, with its refill system allowing for its razor handles to be used indefinitely and its razor heads having a stripped back, minimalist design that not only looks clean and modern but also reduces the need for single-use plastic. In doing so, it encourages users to move away from so-called “throw-away” culture, and instead engage in a circular economy focused more on reuse.