Founded in London in 1793, Bonhams is one of the oldest and largest auctioneers of arts and antiques. In order to position itself favourably to potential new owners, Bonhams needed to demonstrate a clear vision and strategy for the business to entice private equity firms. Bonhams engaged KBS Albion to overhaul their digital ecosystem and to validate a new digital service.

We set out to deliver a modern, digital-first experience through the lens of a heritage brand. In practise this meant leveraging technology in novel ways to better connect Bonhams Specialists to customers. Our thinking coalesced around an idea that we called Specialist as a Service.

My role was to evolve Bonhams’ visual identity and to lead the visual design. A design audit uncovered a high degree of sameness between the Big Four auction houses and a gap analysis revealed a number of ways in which Bonham’s visual language could be developed. Premiumisation was key and achieved with distinguished typography, generous spacing, diverse layouts, subtle embelleshments, and unwavering attention to detail. The result is a design language that is differentiated, contemporary, and elevated.

The new service was tested with Specialists and customers and the vision embedded with all staff globally. We provided the blueprint to overhaul Bonhams’ digital ecosystem and prepared a narrative for the Executive Team that would stand up to the scrutiny of the sale process.

The previous shareholders successfully exited to private equity firm, Epirus, having successfully demonstrated that the current management team had a clear plan for the business moving forward.

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