Berlin-based studio Voodoo Voodoo creates a new visual identity for architecture practice Moreau Kusunoki

Moreau Kusunoki is an internationally renowned Franco-Japanese international architecture practice founded in 2011 by Nicolas Moreau and Hiroko Kusunoki, whose combined experiences include working at the renowned architecture firms of SANAA, Kengo Kuma, and Shigeru Ban. The practice has won various projects in design competitions, including the award-winning proposal for the Guggenheim Helsinki, Sciences Po’s new university campus in the centre of Paris, the National Lighthouse Museum in Brest, and the Powerhouse Parramatta Museum in Sydney, Australia

Central to Moreau Kusunoki’s design approach is the intersection between Japanese and French culture, expressed through the poetry behind each small detail and the wider context we inhabit. It’s an exchange of sensibilities guided by a humble desire for natural and intuitive solutions. These two cultural voices are continuously oscillating  between the ephemeral and permanent, transient memories and lasting legacies.

The visual identity Voodoo Voodoo developed for Moreau Kusunoki draws inspiration from the Japanese concept of ‘Ma’, which is intrinsic to Moreau Kusunoki’s practice. ‘Ma’, often perceived as negative space, suggests an interval, a moment to pause and experience of the ‘space between’ — spaces welcoming silence and defining structure.

The new visual identity embodies this dialogue between space and time: the certainty of our axes sets our grid. The uncertainty of a moment that unfolds sets our rhythm. Moreau Kusunoki’s visual language is shaped by these complementary dualities: close and far; the part and the whole; the light and the dark.

The identity system features a wide spectrum of printed assets and digital applications, including stationery, templates for internal and external communications, office organisational assets, publications, plan drawings, signage, and website. The latter was implemented in collaboration with London based studio LeCollective.

The finely-crafted bespoke envelopes and stationery were produced by Baddeley Brothers, one of the oldest printing companies in the UK, using a selection of GF Smith papers.