H&M group launches Arket, a new brand based on “a blank sheet of paper”

H&M group has announced the launch of new brand Arket, which will open its first store on London’s Regent Street in autumn 2017. The name means “sheet of paper” in Swedish and the branding is designed around this concept.

“It both relates to our origin in the Nordic tradition of functional, long-lasting design and symbolises the blank sheet, the sense of optimism and possibility we felt creating this new brand,” says creative director Ulrika Bernhardtz.

The brand was designed by the in-house team together with “a group of specialist contributors,” she explains, using a typeface drawn “specifically for the needs of the project,” as one element of a “broad identity program”.

Arket will be a “modern-day market” offering products for men, women, children and homeware, from its own range and a selection of other brands. It will have online stores in 18 European countries and locations in Brussels, Copenhagen and Munich in future. Its headquarters is in Stockholm where H&M and the group’s other brands Cos, & Other Stories, Cheap Monday, Weekday and Monki are based.