Giving heritage pet brand Halti a recognisable identity & packaging.

COMPANY BIO | HALTI

Halti has been creating innovative and patented headcollars, no-pull harnesses and leads for more than 40 years. It’s owned by Company of Animals, which was founded by world-renowned animal psychologist, Dr Roger Mugford, in 1979.

CHALLENGE

The backstory.

In 2019, Company of Animals decided to make its individual brands more visually aligned. However, once the team reviewed their consumer data, they realised that some of their sub-brands were more recognisable than the parent company itself!

Moving forward, they needed to create a unified look that felt distinctly “Company of Animals”, without losing the individual brand identities that customers were loyal to.

EV already had a trusted relationship with the Company of Animals team, having supported them on the design and marketing of Baskerville and PupPod, two fellow product lines. As such, they were confident we’d be the “perfect partner” to handle the rebrand of Halti, one of the brands with the most sentimental value to Roger.

The design requirements.

Halti was already established within the pet training space, and so we needed to tread carefully with the rebrand. The last thing we wanted was to confuse its customer base. To do this, we needed to retain some heritage elements of Halti’s design – such as its logo – while still creating a unique, and slightly more modern look.

Halti’s new brand also needed to enhance the customer’s buying experience. Its training products are niche items, so we needed a simplified way of communicating how they work. With many products in the range (for example, multiple variations of a headcollar), it was also important that customers could differentiate between Halti products easily.

Create an “ownable” design element
Retain Halti’s heritage – including its logo
Modernise the brand
Simplify the buyer experience
Mock up packaging for a global audience

SOLUTION

Creating Halti’s new direction.

As the project had such narrow parameters, we needed to get creative with our design process. This included holding a brief tiering workshop. As part of this, we asked the team to rank each element of the brief in order of importance. We also encouraged them to define exactly what they meant by terms like “heritage” and “modern”, so that we were aligned on their expectations.

After a few rounds of iterations, we finally created Halti’s new direction: individual product illustrations, hand drawn onto photographs of dogs and their owners. The key message? That walking with a Halti product is such a relaxing and freeing experience that it feels invisible, and fun for you both. There is no pain or discomfort, and no complicated explanations of how the products work. There is just simplicity, with a touch of playfulness.

What we delivered.

Bespoke creative workshops
A new direction with hand-drawn illustrations
Packaging mock-ups
In-depth brand guidelines
A bank of assets for digital and OOH

RESULTS

Differentiating a heritage brand.

With hand-drawn illustrations of each product, Halti now has a unique design element that differentiates it from competitors. Its familiar logo and signature red and sky-blue colour palette have also stayed the same, so there’s no confusion when shoppers look for Halti products on the shelves.

The blue also acts as a subtle nod to its fellow Company of Animals product lines. When they sit side by side in shops, the products appear as a “brand block”.

Creating consumer-friendly packaging.

As a global company, Halti also has a long list of requirements that affect the design of its product packaging. For instance, there needs to be enough space for every word on the package to appear in four languages, so one consistent artwork can be used globally.

By being economical with space, we were able to comply with each of these requirements, without losing the critical components of the new brand.

Collaborating for long-term success.

One of the rebrand’s main objectives was to gain better consistency across touchpoints. Now, Halti has complete cohesion from shop to website. Across every designed asset, the hand-drawn illustrations provide a recognisable link.

To help the team retain this consistency as they launch new products and update their marketing materials, we created an in-depth brand book containing step-by-step guides, design templates, and a bank of assets. Company of Animals works with both in-house and outsourced marketers, so having a set of standardised design rules has proven essential.

What’s more, this additional support has helped Halti with the design of its upcoming range of premium leads and harnesses, Anatomy.

Working with EV on the Halti rebrand has been a great experience. While aligning with the detailed requirements of the brief had its initial bumps, EV’s suggestion to hold a tiering workshop helped us reset and prioritise effectively. From there, the process felt seamless, and their creative vision brought Halti’s heritage to life with a fresh, modern twist. We’re thrilled with the new brand direction and confident it will resonate with our global customers while staying true to our legacy.

Charlotte Wicks - Category Manager