Two Ladies Kitchen Logo
ART 127–Graphic Symbolism
For this project, I was tasked with creating a logo for a corporation of my choice. At the time, my sister had recently taken a short trip to the Big Island of Hawaiʻi and had brought back an assortment of wonderful desserts from the infamous Two Ladies Kitchen in old Hilo Town. Two Ladies Kitchenʻs strawberry mochi has come to be highly anticipated form of omiyage (keepsake/memento) for families with returning friends from the Big Island of Hawaiʻi. They are the client I chose for this project.
Two Ladies Kitchen is a family business. It started as a family hobby meant to connect newer generations to their traditional Japanese lineage. Today, everyone helping in the small shop to make hand-crafted treats available for families to enjoy is treated as family. Several ideas emerged from this like heritage, hands, and other Japanese folklore surrounding mochi and rice.
Service: Logo Design, Branding
Skills: Sketching, Adobe Illustrator
1. The top of a gift bag presented similar to a kamon (Japanese family crest). This would represent a twist on a Japanese tradition and gift-giving. Nora Uchida, the shop-owner, continues to explore new and modern takes on the tradition she had learned from her aunt.
2. Two hands together elicits the hand-crafted factor of the special mochi made fresh daily. It also represents the passing on of gifts and heritage.
3. This sketch and similar sketches were inspired by cranes which are featured in tales such as Tsuru no Onagaeshi which is a tale about a man who saved a craneʻs life and in return, the crane returns to him as a wife and blesses him with rice and wealth in return. In Japanese culture, rice represents wealth and livelihood and mochi is a derivative of rice.
4. The combination of bunnies and kamon were frequent subjects in my sketches. The bunnies of course came from the legend of the Moon Rabbit, the mythological figure believed to live on the moon and pound mochi.
5. Mizuhiki and noshi are essential elements in Japanese gift-giving. Mizuhiki is the special cord attached to or at the top of a present.
These three logos were contenders for the final logo.
1. Crane with hands for wings linking back to folklore. The hands were positioned as if it were presenting a gift.
2. These two hands represent the hand-crafted nature of the mochi Two Ladies Kitchen produces and the nature in which tradition was passed on.
3. Two moon bunnies presenting an omiyage. The heart on the bag was carried into the final logo in the center of the ribbon.
The final logo I chose was a serious departure from the three contenders. Compared to contender #1 and #2, it was more modern and free of the retro-feel I created. I felt the it was appropriate that Two Ladies Kitchen which creates new and exciting versions of mochi should not be too closely linked to old traditions. The ribbon is supposed to be similar to mizuhiki at the top of a special gift but is not a literal depiction of it. The color red was chosen because it's known to represent aloha and the Big Island of Hawaiʻi. In the center of the ribbon is a heart because I feel when I'm handed a box of Two Ladies Kitchen mochi, someone is expressing love to me.