Lumen was a
Milan
Milan ( , , Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 million, while its metropolitan city h ...
-based multi-disciplined creative and
design
A design is a plan or specification for the construction of an object or system or for the implementation of an activity or process or the result of that plan or specification in the form of a prototype, product, or process. The verb ''to design' ...
consulting
A consultant (from la, consultare "to deliberate") is a professional (also known as ''expert'', ''specialist'', see variations of meaning below) who provides advice and other purposeful activities in an area of specialization.
Consulting servic ...
agency, founded by
Pietro Rovatti and
Drew Smith in 2003. Drew Smith acquired the agency in 2014, changing the name from ''Lumen'' to
Smith Lumen.
History
Lumen was founded in 2003 by the Canadian-born
Drew Charles Smith, a consumer branding and packaging specialist, and the Italian
Pietro Rovatti, a corporate identity and branding specialist. Previously, Smith had been Creative Director at Carré Noir, Robilant & Associati and, eventually, at ''FutureBrand Gio Rossi Associati'', while Rovatti was Senior Art Director at
Sudler & Hennessey and later Creative Director at ''FutureBrand Giò Rossi Associati''.
Corporate structure
Lumen's approach was called
brand
A brand is a name, term, design, symbol or any other feature that distinguishes one seller's good or service from those of other sellers. Brands are used in business, marketing, and advertising for recognition and, importantly, to create ...
ing
innovation
Innovation is the practical implementation of ideas that result in the introduction of new goods or services or improvement in offering goods or services. ISO TC 279 in the standard ISO 56000:2020 defines innovation as "a new or changed entit ...
and, according to its founders, this is what made the agency quickly growing internationally, by opening a branch office in
London
London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...
(UK) in 2006 and establishing strategic partnerships in the same year with
Mildberry, the first branding network in Russia, and in 2011 with
1.618, a
Hong Kong
Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delta i ...
-based branding agency. At its climax in 2011, the agency had 50 employees of 18 different nationalities.
Lumen offered a wide range of services for corporate ad private clients, such as brand strategy, packaging design, corporate & brand identity, brand management, retail design, environmental design, interactive media, point of sale and merchandise design.
Clients
Lumen had worldwide-known clients from multiple business sectors, like
Ferrero Ferrero (Italian: , Spanish: ) is a surname of Italian (from Piedmont) and Spanish origin that means 'smith', the person who works with iron, in parallel with surnames like Ferraro, Ferrari and Smith.
Notable people with the surname Ferrero inclu ...
,
AC Milan
Associazione Calcio Milan (), commonly referred to as AC Milan or simply Milan, is a professional football club in Milan, Italy, founded in 1899. The club has spent its entire history, with the exception of the 1980–81 and 1982–83 seaso ...
,
Campari
Campari () is an Italian alcoholic liqueur, considered an apéritif (20.5%, 21%, 24%, 25%, or 28.5% ABV, depending on the country where it is sold), obtained from the infusion of herbs and fruit (including chinotto and cascarilla) in alcohol a ...
,
Diageo.
Autogrill
Autogrill is an Italian-based, multinational catering company, which is controlled with a 50.1% stake by the Edizione Holding investment vehicle of the Benetton family. Autogrill runs operations in 30 countries, primarily in Europe and North Ame ...
,
Bonduelle
Bonduelle is a French company producing processed vegetables.
History
* The company was founded in 1853, when Louis Bonduelle-Dalle (23 October 1802 - 13 November 1880) and Louis Lesaffre-Roussel (1802–1869) established a grain and juniper b ...
,
Zuegg,
Unilever
Unilever plc is a British multinational consumer goods company with headquarters in London, England. Unilever products include food, condiments, bottled water, baby food, soft drink, ice cream, instant coffee, cleaning agents, energy dri ...
,
Club Med
Club Med SAS, commonly known as Club Med and previously known as Club Méditerranée SA, is a French travel and tourism operator headquartered in Paris, specializing in all-inclusive holidays. Founded in 1950, the company has been primarily o ...
,
Illy
Illycaffè S.p.A. (branded and stylised as illy) is an Italian coffee company specializing in espresso, headquartered in Trieste. Illy markets its coffee globally in silver and red pressurized, oxygen-free cans; operates a network of cafes on s ...
,
Parmalat,
Gancia
Gancia is an Italian wine-making company which produces a broad range of sparkling and still wines from the Piedmont region.
History
The company was founded in 1850 in Turin by Carlo Gancia. Carlo Gancia is known as the father of Italian spark ...
,
Sky
The sky is an unobstructed view upward from the surface of the Earth. It includes the atmosphere and outer space. It may also be considered a place between the ground and outer space, thus distinct from outer space.
In the field of astronomy, ...
,
Bticino,
Barclays,
Kellogg's,
Heinz,
Henkel,
Festina
image:Festina F16184 4.jpg, Festina F16184
Festina is a spain, Spanish watch brand. In 1985, businessman Miguel Rodríguez acquired Festina, a brand founded in Switzerland in 1902, thus forming the ''Festina-Lotus group.''
History
Festina w ...
and
Rolex
Rolex SA () is a British-founded Swiss watch designer and manufacturer based in Geneva, Switzerland. Founded in 1905 as ''Wilsdorf and Davis'' by Hans Wilsdorf and Alfred Davis in London, the company registered ''Rolex'' as the brand name of ...
.
Awards
Some Lumen's works have been awarded due to their style and the use of innovative materials. The project realized for the rum
Zacapa Centenario Etiqueta Negra has been focused on the "emotional involvement of the material used in the packaging" (in this case, palm fibers reproducing the motif of the south-American
petate
A petate is a bedroll used in Central America and Mexico. Its name comes from the Náhuatl word ''petlatl'' . The petate is woven from the fibers of the Palm of petate ('' Leucothrinax morrisii''). The Royal Spanish Academy defines it as a bed ...
on the pack): a reason that prompted the Material Connexion research institute to show the product at the "Materiali innovativi e imprese 2009" exhibition, organized under the patronage of the
Chamber of Commerce of Milan at the design museum
Triennale di Milano
The Triennale di Milano is a design and art museum in the Parco Sempione in Milan, in Lombardy in northern Italy. It is housed in the Palazzo dell'Arte, which was designed by Giovanni Muzio and built between 1931 and 1933; construction was fi ...
.
[ Paola Setti, "La Triennale brinda al rum", Packaging & Design, November 2009, pp. 92-93]
A list of the most notable honours the agency received when still was known as Lumen:
References
External links
Official Website(redirecting)
{{Authority control
Branding companies
Design companies of Italy
Companies based in Milan
Design companies established in 2003
Graphic design studios