Let’s talk about money: Carla Palette’s identity for Tresi spotlights the brand’s transparent prices — The Brand Identity – Home of the Greatest in Graphic & Brand Design

Tresi tells it how it is. In a sea of interior design brands that capitalise on the industry’s lack of transparent pricing, Tresi curates a handpicked selection of luxurious, pre-loved furniture, decor and art without the retail markup. To create an identity that reflects the brand’s radically honest business stance, it collaborated with Berlin-based designer Carla Palette who delivered a system that elevates Tresi’s USP without dialling down its innate sense of style.

The brand’s transparent pricing inspired its tone of voice – precise, direct, and to the point. In addition to pointing out how much their customers would spend on the retail markup for a particular product with their competitors, it also sheds light on how much money one can save by purchasing through Tresi. Such a no-nonsense approach needed an equally simple yet effective visual voice to both complement and mirror it.

Palette led with a strong, recognisable symbol, a simple approach to the overall design system, imbued with a timeless appeal. “What originally was moulded around the letter ‘E’ within the wordmark for Tresi, was extracted into its own symbol – customising, finessing and accentuating the curvature within the form to make a visual connection to a variety of core brand principles at once,” says Palette, about the symbol that stands centre stage in the identity. Conceptually, it nods to Tresi’s commitment to recycling furniture and reducing landfill, however, even at first glance, it holds its own as a focal visual element that’s strong enough to set the young brand apart in a brimming industry.

When Palette began looking for a visual tone for the brand, inspiration struck from the world of fashion maisons, with their evergreen identities that become a perfect foil for their various collections through the years. Tresi too needed a look that was striking yet simple enough to seamlessly complement its line of products. “A creative problem we needed to solve was to create a design system that could also house various styles of interior design from Art Deco to Boho, to Mid-Century Modern and many more – all underneath the one brand name, without diluting or confusing the core brand recognisability,” says Palette. A light-handed approach, a black-and-white palette, and a crisp typographic treatment helped achieve this.

“Some of the keywords we worked with throughout the process were ‘clarity,’ ‘transparency,’ ‘elegance’ and ‘timelessness.’ We needed to find a typeface that was both elegant and neutral enough to clearly communicate the brand’s messaging in an approachable and simple way,” she notes. The utilitarian Acid Grotesk emerged as the right fit, both for primary copy, and the smaller details. “Whilst Acid Grotesk is quite a functional typeface, the letterforms hold some subtle quirks that felt like a nice addition to inject some character into the straight-talking nature of the brand,” shares Palette.

The simplicity of the identity also results in Tresi’s ability to speak to a wide range of audiences – be it a designer with refined taste or knowledge about interior design, or a thirty-something looking for a hero sofa to pull their living room together. Its timelessness, on the other hand, ensures that the brand feels just as fresh and relevant ten years into the future, as it does today.