ICHIGO serves up restaurant-quality Japanese comfort food in an everyday format. With three previous projects for the business under his belt, Ichiban asked Everything Will be Fine’s Kerr Vernon to come up with a brand with a playful vibe and strong typography at its core.

Originality is never a gamble for Kerr, who pays close attention to the craft of every project, clients’ expectations and what customers experience. Working in creative partnership with Ichiban’s Steven Tsang, Kerr helped him realise an identity that matched the vision for the canteen. ICHIGO was delivering an authentic Japanese street food experience for discerning customers. This had to be reflected in the branding.

The brand and typography are rooted in the streets of Tokyo. After exploring a number of experimental type treatments, Kerr settled on Borough Grotesk for display text and Monotalic for body text. Borough Grotesk Pro Regular, used in the capitalised wordmark, is bold and blocky. This is paired to work alongside wording set in Cortado, which brings a hand-painted mid-century Americana vibe.

The strapline “Everyday Japanese” is set in Monotalic Medium. In keeping with the bilingual brand spirit, Kerr made space for both Japanese and English text. The Japanese text spells Umai which means good-tasting or delicious.

Kerr turned to the unique interior of the canteen when making decisions about the colour palette. Tones are also carefully balanced for pairings. Duotone background images showing candid Tokyo street imagery are used with overlaid text for use in branded touchpoints. The identity brings Japanese heritage and Americana ambience into a new era.

Playfulness is a quality carried over by Mascots Ichi and Igo, who play a central role in defining the visual language. Ichi and Igo both have hidden ingredients in their hairstyles.

ICHIGO is a space to eat which is every bit as individual as its customers: “Sushi is made fresh daily in-house and presented behind glass giving choice to the customer to order by the set – or individual piece, allowing for creative mixing and matching to each individual’s taste,” says Steven.