Dr Jays Stores Rebranded: Featured in Chain Store Age as a “Hot Concept”

Dr Jays, the highly popular urban lifestyle retail company, needed a rebranding that more accurately reflected the changing times and a more sophisticated customer base. OffWhite Design was brought in to spruce up the logomark and overall store branding image to offer a fresh dynamic new look and feel to the flagship store on 34th street in NYC. We approached the design direction to convey the lifestyle feel found in quality retail brands, and gave a solid personality to the brand.

Thinking Behind the Branding
Working with TPG Architecture, we developed a color palette that has staying power in a market that is constantly changing itself. These colors are used in the fabrication of the furniture in addition to the walls and other graphic elements. The color goal was to differentiate Dr Jays branding from the heavy use of red colors on 34th street – Macys, H&M, Aeropostal and etc, all use red in their logos – and still stand out in a unique way. The three colors, purple, grey and teal allow for a beautiful backdrop for the store products and merchandise.

We developed the lifestyle theme of a Loft Party concept. As if capturing a moment in time at a young hip party, we show people dancing, doing cool moves, DJing and just have a great time together. The walls are covered with these fun larger than life images. To help tie in the three color panels, we created a background funky line art pattern that leads your eye and runs throughout the store. Stylistically, the people images were treated as black and white artwork with hits of accent color to add interest.

Dr Jays 34th Street Store Lower level at Dr Jays 34th Street Store

A center piece of the store is a young dancer doing a handstand above the elevator doors which are actually speakers. This is a fun element of interaction which allows customers to enter the music and feel the high energy of the store.

ReBranding the Dr Jays Logomark
The original branding at the various stores suffered from inconsistent typography and very dated design feel. We breathed new life into the Dr Jays logomark by designing lettering with a more modern style and a clean crisp look. We created both a stacked version and a horizontal option. The stacked version will be the primary designed used whenever possible. For exterior signage where space is typically more limited, the horizontal version will be used.