• October 31, 2025

Design that listens: crafting the future of luxury branding

Design that listens: crafting the future of luxury branding

Design that listens: crafting the future of luxury branding 1024 685 micebook.

Nicola Dietmann, creative director at Chorus, shares how the agency helped three luxury brands – Emello, Kiki McDonough and Montblanc – create compelling stories.

Creativity is a listening game. You cannot tell an authentic story unless you truly understand what it is you are trying to say. The heavy lifting of creative work comes not from flair alone, but from graft: paying close attention, asking difficult questions, and listening with care. Deeply, deliberately, as though trying to hear not just what someone is saying, but what they mean. The subtext. The gaps. The cultural rhythm beneath the words.

At Chorus, this is where we begin. Every time. Not with mood boards or trend forecasts, but with curiosity. We do not simply decorate ideas – we excavate them. And then we translate them into design systems that speak fluently and elegantly, across mediums and markets.

This philosophy, quiet but powerful, has shaped three recent collaborations that reflect the direction of our studio: Emello’s brand creation, Kiki McDonough’s 40th Anniversary, and our Goethe inspired toolkit for Montblanc. Very different briefs for different clients. Different energies but united by a common thread: each demanded insight-driven creativity that listens before it speaks.

Emello: A New Voice, Thoughtfully Woven

When we began our collaboration with Emello, a new womenswear brand founded by Victoria Price, they were not just looking for visuals. They were looking for resonance. Something that spoke to their ambition without losing elegance. Something modern but rooted. Something true.

Our role was to define the entire brand world – from vision and mission to tone of voice, typography, packaging, digital and beyond. We were drawn and galvanised to the dualities at its heart: comfort and confidence, refinement and motion, tradition and innovation. The brand mark we created was carefully constructed with historical nuance – a Roman serif reimagined with feminine curvature and strength. The icon, a swirling E – captured movement and poise, appearing across buttons, embroidery, social media and swing tags.

We worked hand in hand with Emello, defining, refining, co-creating a world where every asset felt bespoke, strategic, and intuitively luxurious. This was not just a brand creation; it was the architecture of a new legacy.

Kiki McDonough: World of Colour

Where Emello was about establishing a new voice, Kiki McDonough’s 40th anniversary called for a celebration of longevity, but done in a way that looked forward, not back.

Our design thinking here centred around the idea of ‘Forty Years of Colour’, building an identity system that not only honoured Kiki’s vibrant history in fine jewellery, but allowed that colour story to extend confidently across every medium- from packaging to installations, invitations to gifting.

The anniversary lock-up, designed to integrate seamlessly with the brand’s existing logotype, was a sophisticated extension rather than a visual departure. Informed by the geometry of precious stones and the joy of colour, the result was a system that felt at once commemorative and fresh – just like the jewellery itself.

We designed for the moment, yes. But we also designed for what comes next.

Montblanc: Subtle Systems, Global Scale

Our work for Montblanc was different again. This was not a rebrand or campaign. It was the creation of a design toolkit that could be deployed globally – across activations, internal communications, live events and retail. It needed to hold its own in Berlin and Bangkok, Paris and São Paulo. It needed to be unmistakably Montblanc, yet flexible enough to respond to local nuance.

Our solution was strategic, elegant, and quietly powerful – a toolkit that prioritised consistency without flattening expression. Every layout, lock-up, and visual cue was built from the brand’s DNA, enabling activation teams across the world to design with confidence, continuity and style.

It is easy to make something loud. It is far harder to create something that endures.

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