Zen & Soul
- Scope
- Brand Identity · Packaging Design · Art Direction
- Year
- 2024
Zen & Soul is a matcha brand built around ceremonial grade tea and the discipline behind it. The name gave the studio its idea: Zen is the understanding of green tea, its leaves, storage and temperature; Soul is the patience to repeat and the willingness to experiment. Verywhere held those two temperaments in one mark, a quiet spaced logotype interrupted by a brushed ampersand and an enso ring in the O, and let that brushed gesture carry the brand from the pack to the bag to the apron.
Harmony and balance became the guiding principle. The logotype is set in wide, light capitals so it reads as stillness; the hand drawn ampersand and the ring inside the O carry the human, imperfect gesture of tea preparation. That contrast between control and looseness runs through every element. The palette takes its names from the tea room, Charcoal, Wood, Ceramic, Matcha and White, so colour decisions always return to material rather than trend. A set of brushed graphic symbols, the enso, ripples, waves, a starburst and horizontal strokes, extends the mark into a language that can sit on photography, a coaster or the face of a bag without the logo having to appear. Photography is kept dark and close, with the logotype centred over the image, so the brand feels observed rather than announced.
Applications were kept almost entirely monochrome so that the brushwork, not colour, carries the recognition. Packaging and cups carry the logotype and little else, trusting white space to signal the premium grade. The paper bags separate the enso from the wordmark so each can stand as the brand on its own, and the coasters repeat that split, symbols on black, wordmark on cream, so a table reads as one system. The apron takes the same restraint: the name shrinks to a small centred mark at the chest.