Tonkotsu is a restaurant brand leading the ramen scene in London. With their business growing, they wanted to refresh the brand reflecting their hybrid culture of Modern Japan and Modern London. From the in-store noodle machine to the serving bowl, Tonkotsu wanted to communicate their devotion to the craft of ramen to give their customers a unique, modern ramen experience curated in every details.
However, the name Tonkotsu refers in Japan to a specific style of ramen, prepared with pork bone broth. One of the main challenge of the brief was then to give the brand a unique, modern image, beyond the pork bone ramen style, even for people familiar with the ramen culture.
Tonkotsu is a conjunction of two words: Ton means pork and Kotsu stands for bone. But Kotsu, if used alone, can represent the idea of spirit and the core of a thing. So we developed a mark focused on the Japanese character for 'Kotsu' which beyond having a distinctive look, would also be a clear reference to the brand for those that can read Japanese.
To visualise Tonkotsu’s devotion to ramen and their cultural mix of Modern Japan and Modern London, we also created patterns illustrating noodle and utensils, using geometric shapes as the Western aesthetic and applying handmade textures reminiscent of Japanese calligraphy.
