BAUTISTA·PAYASLIAN
EN
Case 02 / 04Self initiated

Brand identity and visual system

The full Kizuna system: red coffee bag with its band, kraft coffee bag, stacked take away cups, enamel mug, card and sticker

The Intersection of Urban Chaos and Precise Craft

The problem

Specialty coffee in Buenos Aires repeats one visual repertoire and, underneath it, a single idea: the cafe as a cozy place. Kizuna is built against that idea.

Who it is for

People who value disruption and go looking for excellence in coffee, and who cannot find a place that represents them among so many cute cafes. The crossing point of choice for everyone the rest has no room for. Instead of warmth, it offers recognition.

The project

It does not offer a place to be comfortable in but a place you go to drink coffee, and instead of warmth it offers recognition. That is why the system is hard: the hardness is the signal.

Kizuna (絆) means bond. The brand does not stand for the coffee but for the place where the people drinking it cross paths. The reference is the Shibuya Crossing, and what it contributes is its mechanics: thousands of trajectories pass through the same point without colliding. The disorder does not disappear, it gets a structure. Kizuna does not house a chaotic place, it houses chaos that organises itself, and that is why the system is high impact and strictly gridded at the same time.

The whole language comes out of the Japanese and Buenos Aires crossing, resolved with the almost Swiss brutalism in everyday use in Japan today. Fictional brand, self initiated project: the applications are shown on mockups and nothing was physically produced.

The mark

A synthesis of the Shibuya Crossing

A geometric synthesis of the crossing lanes, built from primary shapes. It works as an urban eye and as a symbol of convergence at the same time.

It was not drawn separately from the typography: it came out of the stem of the primary family. That is why the symbol and the wordmark close as a single piece.

The Kizuna mark in white on a solid red field
The mark
The symbol derived in three steps: the aerial photograph of the Shibuya Crossing, the tracing of the pedestrian lanes turned into bars, and the final consolidated shape
Construction
Clear space around the symbol and the two lockups, with the X module marked on each
Clear space
How the system behaves on the three palette backgrounds: cream, red and black, with the full family of lockups on each
Versions
Reductions: which version of the mark is used at each size, and the point where the secondary text is dropped for legibility
Reductions
Type system
  • Primary

    Rubik Mono One

    Measured against
    • Space Mono
    • Other heavy monospaced faces with open licences

    Chosen for its stem, which the shape of the symbol comes out of, and because it was the only one that survived being condensed without losing its identity. The minimal condensing makes the wordmark read as a block, just like the symbol.

  • Secondary

    Syne

    Measured against
    • A neutral grotesque for text

    It carries the text where the mono gives up legibility. A neutral grotesque was ruled out because in a system this loaded it would read as a hole rather than as neutrality.

Palette

Three inks and no more than two per piece: on white it is black and red, on black it is white and red. Red is the only signal and the only color the printer has to get right. The cream is not there for warmth but to step back: a cold white would compete with the black and the red, and the system needs one thing speaking at a time.

Measured against
  • A cold, solid white as the neutral
  • A palette of earth and warm tones, from the dominant register of the category
  • BaseDeep Black#000000
  • NeutralCream#CBC8B9
  • AccentElectric Red#F5332C
The Kizuna packaging family, three 250g coffee bags: Asahi house blend, Yama single origin and Hanami special edition
Paper printed with the Kizuna symbol repeated in red, in use on a metal tray with bread and spreads
The Kizuna take away cup in both versions, cream and red, on a dark counter
Kizuna take away cup in cream, with the vertical wordmark and the scale of specification bars
Paper band on the whole bean packaging, with KIZUNA and COFFEE BAG repeated and the bar pattern
Projecting facade sign with the stacked KI/ZU/NA mark in cream on red
Shop window with the wordmark in white cut vinyl and, below it, the specification bar pattern with the middle bar in red
Barista apron carrying the Kizuna mark
Drinks menus printed on kraft and cream paper, stacked on a red stool inside the shop
The system on social: an Instagram profile with the feed built out and six posts enlarged, among them the barista uniform, the opening campaign in numerals, the Hanami bag, the high contrast pour illustration, the facade and the merch
01

Special edition

Hanami

BL-03, special edition

The only point where the system steps outside the high contrast palette and the technical language.

The exception is coded rather than improvised: it keeps the information architecture of the family and changes only the color layer and the illustrative device. It shows the system can take a seasonal variant without losing the read of the whole.

Hanami 250g bag: illustrated cherry blossoms and a magenta side panel over pearl cream, while the spec panel keeps the symbol, name, origin, tasting notes and process data exactly like the rest of the family

Process

How it was solved and what it was measured against

Constraints
  • No client, no budget and no deadline: a fictional, self initiated project, so the only constraints are its own
  • The mark had to be built from primary shapes, to be memorable and producible as a stamp
  • One color, and a primary one: a signal against the dominant pastel, and cheaper to produce
  • The whole language had to come out of the Japanese and Buenos Aires crossing, with no borrowed codes
Decisions

Mark

A geometric synthesis of the crossing lanes, built from primary shapes and derived from the stem of the primary typeface

Frente a: Drawing the symbol separately from the typography · A figurative mark

Coming out of the stem means symbol and wordmark share a construction, which is why they close together instead of just coexisting. The primary shapes come from the production constraint: a simple mark becomes a stamp and costs less.

Specification pattern

The lines of the pedestrian crossing, taken literally. Three lines, the middle one red.

Frente a: An illustrated mascot, which is the standard device in the category

The lines share the stem and the size of the symbol and the typeface, so the pattern is not an addition but the same system at another scale. The middle one is red so it reads as an element with hierarchy rather than as three squares.

Production

Three inks across the whole system, with a maximum of two per piece

Frente a: A wider palette with more than one accent color

Red is the only color the printer has to get right, which brings the cost of the system down and reduces registration error.

References
  • The Shibuya CrossingUrbanismNot as a Japanese postcard but for its mechanics: many trajectories crossing the same point without colliding.
  • Spec sheets and industrial designProductThe language of grids, specification labels and information ordered by standard.
  • The almost Swiss brutalism in everyday use in JapanGraphic designAbsorbed as a general register, without specific references.
Next caseCompromiso Mujeres ConscientesBrand identity and visual system · 2026