WWD Honors

Fairchild Media Group

WWD Honors is an annual awards event celebrating individuals and corporate successes within the fashion and beauty industries.

From the fledgling conversations through ideation, research and development, and final execution, Foreign has been involved with this event since 2016, inaugural year, through its subsequent evolutions.

It’s been a great opportunity to create an impactful brand from its origin through every touch point: set design, onsite graphics, full marketing campaigns, countless intro videos, not to mention designing and manufacturing of the coveted awards themselves.

For the first few years the event was held at The Pierre Hotel, located on Fifth Avenue facing Central Park. A place with fashion heritage; Coco Chanel and Karl Lagerfeld have both lived there, as well as Valentino hosting a couture show.

At out initial site visit, were we documented the space for research—it became quickly apparent the space would be our inspiration (see video below).

The awards night always dovetailed the annual WWD CEO Apparel and Retail conference (which Foreign also designed in tandem each year)—an invite only event for the designers and executives of the industry; always drawing a stellar crowd. The branding for both had to complement each other to maintain coherency and continuity.

Brand Identity | Foreign was tasked with the creation of the branding including the development of a new logo and design system. We drew inspiration from the interiors of the Pierre Hotel, including the intricate design of the carpets and Edward Melcarth hand painted walls of the ballroom—where the event was held.

The five cusps of the gold ring signify the original five awards (which has subsequently been expanded in number), which were enhanced by the five gold leaves of the laurel wreath—inspired by one of Melcarth’s wall paintings.

Brand Campaign | The event was marketed through both print and digital campaigns. The branding was also developed across all the different materials the attendees would experience, from the initial invite, pre-event communication, environmental graphics, activations, sponsorships, brochure, as well as event and post event videos.

Award Design | The award itself was a continuation of the branding, the gold ring from the logo was utilized as the main icon. The award now sits in the offices and homes of some of the most esteemed names in the industry: Karl Lagerfeld, Ralph Lauren, Stella McCartney, Kim Jones, François-Henri Pinault, and Leonard Lauder (Estée Lauder founder).

event video + motion design | Each year we created the intro video which opened the award ceremony—focussing on the nominees,  and the 100+ year heritage of the WWD brand, and previous winners.  We also produced a ‘walk-up’ video for each winner to reflect on their achievements and what cemented them as worthy winners.