Making kimchi requires putting a bunch of veggies and seasonings in a container to ferment, but even kimchi has a shelf life. 2023 marks 15 years of business for Kimchi Kawaii and it was time to freshen up the kimchi for sure.
So this past weekend, I revamped my theming, logo and colors. I’m still wrapping up stuff and replacing things here and there, but you’ll see the changes on my website, social media and in person displays when I sell at events.
First change was to update my logo/mascot. From the start of Kimchi, Roary the Korean tiger was the image on all my profile pictures and branding. A few years later, I created a sister for him. Originally, her name was Fleur and she was a white tiger with a heart on her forehead who covered my lolita fashion and decoden themed items. As time went on, I phased out Frosted Fleur di Lis and those items. Fleur got revamped as another orange tiger (still has the heart) and her name was changed to Junghee which is actually the name I came with from Korea when I was adopted.
I’ve been working to bring in more of my Korean heritage and since I’m a girl, I felt that Junghee was a better representative for the brand. Roary is still here, he’s just letting his sister shine now.
Here are the logos that I’ve had over the 15 years I’ve been in business.
Evolution of Kimchi Kawaii’s logos.
I’m pulling in some inspiration from traditional Korean art for my branding as well. Below is detail of elements that you’ll start seeing in some of my social media and other display items. This design is inspired by the colorful details you see in traditional Korean architecture. The style is called ‘dancheong’ which translates into ‘red and blue’. I adapted the colors, making them more saturated to fit with the brightly colored designs that make up Kimchi Kawaii.
It was a lot of work to vector and would have been a lot more if it wasn’t for copy/paste and reflect!
Detail of decorative elements that will be in various Kimchi Kawaii branding.
I currently have a new table runner and backdrop for my dealers booths in production. I’m also getting an overhead banner for when I do smaller spaces like artist alley tables. I’m super excited to debut these items this year. The first will be at Anime Boston in April.
Anyway, time to get back to work on more of the rebrand! I hope you enjoyed this brief look at Kimchi’s history, the new look and the story behind it all.
