Since 2014, we have been working with travelware brand Lojel on revitalizing their brand imagery and the production of their yearly campaigns. In 2017, Lojel approached us with the task to rebrand their 28-year company. This was an opportunity to work on something that is very personal to us—travel. From the people we meet to the creativity we seek, travelling has always been a huge source of inspiration for our studio. Lojel wanted to create a new brand identity to showcase the direction for the company.
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<h2>Process</h2>
Having worked with the Lojel team on their brand collateral in the past years, we understood the brand applications that would need to be considered when designing the new brand identity. In previous years, the Lojel brand had relied heavily on their signature green as way of building brand distinction amongst their competitors. Yet, as the company began to explore different colours for their products, pairing some colours with the green proved to be a challenge. At the same time, the Lojel team had been relying heavily on the square format of their logo as the square was visually more recognizable. Yet, the square format would provide difficulties when used in small spaces both in print and online.
Taking these issues into account, we looked to create a new brand identity for Lojel that provided application flexibility and a visual direction that could withstand the test of time.
One of the main brand elements we collectively agreed was needed for the brand was the creation of a logo mark. We wanted to design a mark that was reduced to simplified shapes, allowing it to fit in small surface areas like a zipper tab and had the weight to stand out when placed on top of a photo. Creating such a mark can often prove to be challenging since we wanted to achieve a mark that was ultra-simplified, while still being unique and iconic to Lojel.
During our exploration, we were looking into the idea of a journey, and drew our inspiration from the iconography found in road maps. Our final iteration of the logomark combines the symbols of a pathway and a flag to create Lojel’s “journey” logo mark. We liked the visual of a pathway to represent a journey, and the flag as a mark of arrival. These images resonated with our team in terms of what we were trying to convey in the spirit of Lojel’s brand.

<h2>Branding</h2>
For the brand typeface, we wanted to use a classic sans serif that expressed a certain international quality; one that could be seen used in airport way finding. We landed on Univers and liked the extensive family of weights that it offered for Lojel’s brand system. The final wordmark is set in Universe Black Extended while the 45 Light, 55 Roman and 65 Bold weights are used throughout the brand collateral.
In addition to the brand identity, we also had the opportunity to establish a new colour system for Lojel’s future products. For the new product spectrum, we chose more earthy and natural tones to reflect the colours one might come across in nature while travelling.
Throughout the branding process, one of the main obstacles that our studio and the Lojel team came across was deriving history and meaning from the name Lojel—a name given by the founders in 1989. With the meaning of the name unclear, we worked with Lojel’s creative director, Kenzo Yoneno to derive a slogan from the letters in Lojel. From our explorations, we landed on the slogan “Let Our Journeys Enrich Life” as the overarching mission for the brand moving forward.

<h2>Application</h2>
Once the brand identity was established, we moved onto brand application to translate the brand elements onto their products and print collateral. Along with the rebrand, Lojel was set to release their first line of travel accessories as well and looked to us to establish the design system for the packaging.
We wanted to create a design system that could be applied to all accessories to create a cohesive family of products. While exploring potential options, we found the concept of “levels” to be a continuous theme in travel. Our team identified the idea of layers through three lens: the topographic layers in the environment, the layers of experience during travel, and the layers of travel information. Using this concept, we created a layered visual system for Lojel to lay out the layers of information for each product. This design system was then applied to product hangtags and the online website as well.
It has been truly rewarding to see the new brand identity continue to take shape as Lojel grows and repositions their company. Lojel recently opened their second retail store in Hong Kong&#8217;s busy Causeway Bay district.

Services

Location

Branding

Identity

Print

LOJEL

After working together on their first standalone publication These Islands, Rosa Park of Cereal Magazine approached us regarding a new personal endeavor, Francis Gallery.
Named after her father, Francis Gallery had been a dream project of Rosa’s that had been brewing for many years and was finally ready to be launched. Rosa had shared with us her passion for art but recognized that owning art that was displayed in most museums and galleries were simply unattainable for most people. Meanwhile, it was also difficult for up and coming artists to have their art shown in a gallery. Her goal with Francis was to create a platform to celebrate new artists and display artwork that could be more attainable by a larger majority of art lovers.
To support their physical gallery space in Bath, UK, Rosa commissioned us to design and developed their online gallery and shop and printed catalogues.
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<h2>Website Design</h2>
When we first began the design for the Francis gallery website, we took our inspiration from the pure and tranquil qualities of the Korean moon jar.
Echoing the shape of a moon jar, we strived to create a simple top menu; a body with an abundance of rich content; and then ending the page with a balanced footer.
We were also intrigued by the light and darkness of the jar’s exterior and interior. We translated these qualities into the website through a pale homepage and a dark background colour for the shop page.
Since launching in 2018, we have worked with the Francis team to expand on various components of the website to accommodate their growing roster of artists. Most recently, the site has been updated to feature artwork and exhibitions from both their original location in Bath as well as their new gallery in Los Angeles.

<h2>Exhibition Catalogue Design</h2>
As part of the in-gallery experience, we designed an exhibition catalogue to accompany each show. The catalog is wrapped with a sheet of semi-translucent vellum paper that displays the vertical Francis wordmark while subtly obscuring the exhibition title page beneath. This paper combination was inspired by our trip to the UK where fog is a common part of the British landscape—creating a unique sense of depth of field. The catalogue is designed as a flexible template that can be used for future exhibitions and provide visual consistency for the brand. During our partnership with Francis Gallery, around 13 exhibition catalogues were produced, taking the established template and adapting it slightly to fit the concept of the show.
As Francis Gallery opened their new LA location in 2022, we designed a catalogue that was specific for their LA exhibitions. White the Gallery has since moved on with a rebranded identity and website (2023), we are grateful for the opportunity to have partnered with them for the past four years and had the opportunity to witness amazing work created by the artists that have exhibited with Francis Gallery.

Website

Francis Gallery

In April of 2018, we were commissioned by CEREAL to work on their latest project for Antwerp-based special house, Graanmarkt 13.
Founded by Ilse Cornelissens and Tim Van Geloven, Graanmarkt 13 is a crossover of apartment, restaurant and store, with each level of their house offering a unique experience of Ilse and Tim’s vision. Graanmarkt 13 had made a significant mark globally and their team wanted to create a publication that captured their story and ethos.
Working with CEREAL and Graanmarkt 13’s art director, Bob Verhelst, we began to construct the framework for the book.

<h2>Design</h2>
Set at 256 pages, a flat plan was made to map out the content as well as the movement and flow of the book. One of the new challenges we came across when designing this publication was working with the oversized format of this document. At 10” x 13”, this was the largest size we worked with up to this point. With the document size in mind, we ran a number of tests to find the most comfortable type size for the body text.
Titled A white facade, five floors and an open door, the book moves from interviews with Vincent Van Duysen (architect), Seppe Nobels (chef), and Bob Verhelst and Christian Salez (directors) to the “elements of Graanmarkt 13”—highlighting the materials, ingredients and foliage that encapsulates Graanmarkt 13. With direction from Bob Verhelst, Rich Stapleton’s photos are placed throughout the book, shown at full scale to draw the reader into the image to experience Antewerp up close.
We also added an image index at the end of the book to provide an added layer of information to the images.

Graanmarkt 13

Publication Design

2018

Design

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