Uguisu | Branding

Uguisu is a kitchen company founded by two designers who wanted to bring amazing quality, high-end kitchen cabinetry to the online market. Uguisu's collection is specially curated, sourced and deleivered to it's end user in a refreshingly honest and transparent way. A name with a Japanese connection was important for founder, Mioko. The name Uguisu comes from a small bird found in Japan, which can mostly be heard in the spring. It is also the name used for olive green, a colour that would be used for the first kitchen installed by the company, and would become the feature colour of the brand. With this name in mind we started to play with ideas for the branding. We wanted to brand to feel honest, natural, clean and considered to reflect the products. We also explored how we could bring in more texture and personality with some hand drawn illustrations to help tell the story. We played with the idea of the bird, and the icon came from the simple body shape with wings. We also liked how it felt like a stack of bowls. The logo wording was a bespoke font formed from individual pieces coming together. This again reflected the product, with all the kitchen elements coming together. The Uguisu olive green had to be our main feature colour, and then we sat it with an earthy contrasting orange. The final brand reflects the Uguisu ethos. It is simple, yet warm and open - and it feels different from others that you might see on the market.