rag & bone

Established in New York.

The project was rooted in re-establishing rag & bone’s connection to New York City, it’s cultural, emotional, and creative home. The city’s contradictions of grit and culture, style and utility, and tradition and reinvention inspired each aspect of its brand. In a moment when fashion has become increasingly image-driven, filtered, and flattened, we saw these tensions not as opposing forces, but as the fabric of something essential.

rag & bone has always valued quality. This rebrand centered around giving that quality a cultural dimension in order to define not just what the brand makes, but who it makes it for and why. We anchored the strategy in designing for today’s creative class — a community of artists, filmmakers, entrepreneurs, and independent thinkers who set trends rather than follow them. An audience that seeks a wardrobe of everyday essentials that reflects rather than overshadows their identities.

The strategy extended into how the brand shows up culturally. Across campaigns and content, we created a framework that draws directly from rag & bone’s core inspirations — the pulse of the city, the perspective of photographers, the icons of local hospitality, and the rhythm of street-level New York.

The refreshed identity begins where rag & bone started: with a typewriter. Rather than replicate the original logo with a digital font, we tracked down a 1930s Royal model, typed the name, scanned the page, and vectorized it. We kept the imperfections. The inconsistencies. The subtle noise. This became our north star. Across the brand system, we favored the genuine over the manufactured. Everything was designed to feel analog, physical, and tactile. Film photography replaced digital polish. Stamps, stencils, scans, and sewn elements brought texture to print and digital materials.

The iconic “rb” monogram — once solely sewn into the back of jeans — was elevated into a core logomark of the identity. We built a library of hand-drawn icons to expand their brand language. Custom stencils signify apparel fits. And a slash ( / ) was introduced as a typographic device to separate product lines, cities, and themes.

Typography is inspired by Warhol-era downtown marquees, concert posters, subways, and corner shops. The typography system embraced rawness and utility. Headlines use Bushwick JNL and Early Edition JNL, which are paired with Alte Haas Grotesk and Suisse Int’l Mono for body copy, capped off with Opti York for decorative flourish.

Photography art direction mirrors the identity's analog and unfiltered sensibility. Imagery favors grain, light leaks, and natural shadows over studio perfection. Models are cast for character, not polish. Locations are centered around everyday places with texture and story, such as rooftops, alleys, fire escapes, hotel rooms, laundromats, and diners.

Packaging became an extension of the product itself — layered, tactile, and intentional. We introduced a distressed visual language, with visible materials, hand-applied elements, and natural textures that carried through every unboxing moment.