Grant Macdonald
An identity with the presence to match the reputation
A new Royal Warrant. A new chapter.
Grant Macdonald London had more than 50 years of gold and silversmithing expertise behind it. With the second generation taking the business forward and international opportunities growing, it was time to give its ambitions a clearer voice.
The award of a Royal Warrant from His Majesty King Charles III provided the occasion. We helped Grant Macdonald define what sets it apart, evolve its identity and tell the story of a business bringing traditional skills and modern technology together.
The Brief
Grant Macdonald already held a Royal Warrant to The Prince of Wales. The award of a new Warrant as Goldsmiths & Silversmiths to His Majesty King Charles III prompted a chance to revisit a longstanding design challenge: how to give the Royal Arms their proper place alongside the company’s understated identity, particularly on smaller printed pieces.
There were broader questions to consider too. George Macdonald was taking a greater role in leading the family business, while its international work and presence in the Middle East continued to develop.
The brief grew beyond the relationship between the logo and the Warrant. Grant Macdonald needed a clear position for its next chapter, connecting the reputation it had earned with the ambitions of the people taking it forward.
The Strategy
Customer and employee interviews, competitor research and a working session with the team revealed a category largely defined by heritage, tradition and longevity. For a business competing with names several centuries old, age alone was unlikely to be its strongest argument.
What stood out was how Grant Macdonald worked. Traditional gold and silversmithing skills sat alongside 3D design, prototyping and printing. Clients could take part earlier in the design process, and the team could explore ideas and forms that would be difficult to develop through traditional methods alone. Investment in apprenticeships ensured the specialist skills needed to finish that work by hand would continue.
We positioned Grant Macdonald as the next generation of London gold and silversmiths. This reflected both the family succession and an approach to the work: open to new possibilities, grounded in specialist knowledge and willing to take on ambitious commissions.
That position informed the brand’s tone of voice and core messaging. It gave the team a shared way to explain the business, with greater emphasis on its design thinking, people and capabilities.
The Execution
We began by translating the strategy into a clear narrative and language the team could use across marketing, social channels and the developing website.
The visual identity followed. We evolved the branding to give the Grant Macdonald name greater presence, retaining its established recognition while resolving how it worked alongside the Royal Warrant. A more flexible relationship between the two allowed both to remain clear across packaging, stationery and smaller applications.
Gold and silver reflected the materials at the centre of the business. Foil, tactile paper stocks and carefully detailed artwork brought the quality of its work into the printed pieces customers would handle.
Film and photography then made the brand narrative visible. We followed the journey of a commission from concept and design through prototyping, making and presentation. As individual commissions can take months, we brought together real pieces at different stages to show the process in full.
The film introduces the people behind the finished work and shows how their skills come together. It reveals the role of technology in developing an idea, the judgement needed to realise it and the exchange of knowledge between apprentices and experienced team members.
Together, the film and photography give Grant Macdonald a body of content rooted in how the business works. These assets support its website, social channels and wider promotion, with Farrows also advising on the new website’s design and content.
Creating a brand position for a multi-generational business is all about balance: respecting the pride built over decades, while giving the next generation room to make it their own. Working alongside Grant Macdonald, we developed a Brand Strategy that gave both generations a shared way to talk about the business, balancing their deep heritage in the craftsmanship of gold and silversmithing with a forward-looking embrace of technology.
