Shut The Kale Up

During the development of the STKU rebrand, we held on to four words Jeannette said to us in our kick-off meeting, "Honesty is my brand." This became the foundation of the project and our intent to develop a brand identity that represented her authentic self.

"I just want a brand that says welcome to my home" Jeannette said in passing as we were diving into concept development. Studying the idea of home as a cultural layer to Mexico, we obsessed over tile motifs, subversive uses of pattern and color play.

A square symbolizes the Mexican tile as a symbol for home, individualism of self and the collective nature of community gathering.

Our internal findings revealed that Jeannette's Instagram leans into two color palettes which to our surprise, merged seamlessly with our Mexico studies. We narrowed down to 7 colors for the STKU brand and divided them into two parts for her brand.

We discovered a contrasting palette to highlight nurturing moments of motherhood, postpartum positivity, and natural family-style living – aligning them with the craftwork of women artists in the history across Mexico.

The use of two contemporary typefaces balanced the heritage focus of the brand by bringing in Jeannette's character though strength, sophistication, feminity within form.

Glysa, an elegant serif, serves as a display font for bold yet humble expressions that are true to Jeannette's warm and approachable personality.

Supply, a modest monospace typeface, serves to evoke early typewriter styles and Jeannette's intelligent voice via her space as a blogger in the digital space.

We layered moments of surprise across the system, leaving rules at the door. Instead, we developed an infinite tool kit for play where Jeannette's casual self and love for family roots could reflect in a brand that brought heritage home.

Radiating sun varieties. An eloquent icon for STKU symbolizing life, strength, and influence while also honoring the brands origin in sunny Los Angeles.

The study of patterns and design systems found on tiles in Mexican kitchen and homes inspired a flexible system for the brand to live in a playful ecosystem.