Project MORIUCHI
Based in the Kawasaki city, Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan, Moriuchi Interior (森内木工) is a long-established company whose businesses focus on manufacturing and providing high-class families with furniture and interior products made from the wood of the highest quality. Following the expansion of their businesses and as the company finds more success in the overseas market, Moriuchi Interior found the need to have their identity and website redesigned more pressing than ever.
Understanding the company's needs, Project MORIUCHI was launched to envision, design, and promote a fresh image for Moriuchi Interior.
Color Palette
Similar to prior projects, Project MORIUCHI starts off by devising a new color palette for Moriuchi Interior. Understanding the company's needs to create a modern look, which could catch the attention of new customers from overseas, while retaining the elegant, luxury, yet simple feeling long-endorsed by Japanese customers, the project employed 5 colors from the Pantone's palette: Black 6C (#101820), 446 C (#3F4444), 617 C (#C0B561), Cool Gray 4C (#BBBCBC), and Cool Gray 1C (#D9D9D6). In addition to these 5 colors, various gradations created through the combination of these colors are also employed.
Logo Design
Logo design is, perhaps, the most important step in any Branding project. Project MORIUCHI is no exception. For Moriuchi Interior, the company's logo must be easily recognizable while being able to fully convey the company's image and business policies.
To tackle this challenge, the project created a logo by combining two ideograms: a picture frame together with a forest. This decision was made based on two factors: First, the "forest" and the "framed within" are both the literal translation of the two Japanese letters 森 (Forest) and 内 (Inside), which made up the name Moriuchi, and second, the company's policy to bring out the essence contained within the wood while conserving nature.
For Moriuchi Interior's name (森内木工), Project MORIUCHI designed each character based on the standard Chinese letterform Heiti (黑体), an equivalent of sans-serif for roman characters, instead of the Gothic (ゴシック体) letterform as used in standard Japanese characters. The English letters are also designed based on the standard sans-serif letterform.
To tackle this challenge, the project created a logo by combining two ideograms: a picture frame together with a forest. This decision was made based on two factors: First, the "forest" and the "framed within" are both the literal translation of the two Japanese letters 森 (Forest) and 内 (Inside), which made up the name Moriuchi, and second, the company's policy to bring out the essence contained within the wood while conserving nature.
For Moriuchi Interior's name (森内木工), Project MORIUCHI designed each character based on the standard Chinese letterform Heiti (黑体), an equivalent of sans-serif for roman characters, instead of the Gothic (ゴシック体) letterform as used in standard Japanese characters. The English letters are also designed based on the standard sans-serif letterform.
Stationary System Design
As a part of the company's new identity system, a stationary system consisting of business card designs, envelop designs, letterhead designs, proposal form design, and more, was also designed. Similar to the company's logo, the new stationary system must also be easily recognizable while being able to fully convey the company's image and business policies. With Black 6C and Cool Gray 1C as two base colors, the system was designed without any complicated elements to ensure the highest readability.
Corporate Website Design
Once the company's identity system has been designed, the project proceeded to design a corporate website for Moriuchi Interior. Fully utilizing the defined color palette, Moriuchi Interior's corporate website focuses more on storytelling than promoting the company's products and services. This decision was made so as to respect Moriuchi Interior's decision to honor the company's long journey ever since its first establishment.
This concludes the project! Thank you for your interest!
