Clestège · Hair Atelier Berlin
Clestège was positioned as a premier destination for a beauty experience that goes beyond expectations — every touchpoint built as one cohesive story of indulgence and personalised care.
The client approached us to elevate their hair salon and product range into something memorable — a distinctive identity and brand world that would resonate with a high-end clientele in an increasingly competitive market.
We ran a study into how existing and potential customers responded to the brand — including its name. The original spelling, Clesteege, lacked the clarity and sophistication the brand was meant to embody. After exploring alternatives, we refined it to Clestège: close enough to keep the emotional bond to the original, but aligned with the luxurious, exclusive positioning ahead.
The naming exploration itself was rigorous. Alternative names such as Sylk and Cilk were trialled alongside refined spellings of the original — and the client chose Clestège, paired with a new, sleeker wordmark built to communicate exclusivity, craftsmanship and timeless elegance.
To craft the strategy, we began with in-depth interviews with the client — understanding their vision, values and aspirations — and complemented these with on-site visits to experience the atmosphere, aesthetics and customer journey firsthand.
Using a Key Brand Model, we aligned every part of the strategy with Clestège's core identity: its essence, values, unique selling proposition, and emotional and functional benefits — a cohesive foundation for everything that followed.
We developed three creative directions for the identity — each a complete world with its own mood, palette and logo treatment, tested across the name candidates under consideration.
With the name settled, the identity centres on a refined lowercase wordmark and the line Hair Atelier Berlin — carried across services and products in one consistent voice, and expressed through a warm, editorial photography direction that feels less like a salon and more like a fashion house.
Credits. Brand strategy, naming, identity and art direction by Sophie Andresen for Clestège, Berlin. Design execution support by Luca Steiler, Designer. The detailed brand strategy remains under NDA; this case study shows the publicly shareable treatment.