J.Kuttin: African Inspired, London Designed
The Challenge: Professional Elegance Meets Streetwear Cool
With a unique sense of cool, swag and business style merging with the casual street wear, J.Kuttin creates designs that make a bold statement. With a tagline “African Inspired. London Designed”, this brand is out to set trends and help reach African professionals reach new heights.
When J.Kuttin wanted a logo that helped them launch the fashion brand in London, they turned to Spellbrand to help them create the right vehicle to market their brand.
The vision of the brand is to start with business casual styles and then slowly start introducing bold African prints on t-shirts and backpacks etc with a streetwear vibe like Hype, Serge Denimes, and Herschel. To enable this broad range of styles, the brand identity needed to be professional and elegant with a bit of fun and casualness – a tough challenge for any design agency.
This challenge requires:
- Professional elegance: Appeals to African professionals
- Streetwear cool: Connects with casual fashion market
- African connection: Deep-rooted connection to Africa
- London positioning: Designed in London, inspired by Africa
Logo Design: Scaling Mountains to New Heights
So, we approached this design with a brand story that we developed centering around “helping African reach new heights” which translated into the visual moniker of “scaling mountains”. We picked the 3 highest mountains in Africa – Mount Kilimanjaro, Tanzania – 19,563 ft. (5,963 m), Mount Kenya, Kenya – 17,057 ft (5,199 m) and Mount Stanley, Democratic Republic of the Congo – 16,763 ft (5,109 m) created 3 triangles to represent these 3 mountains.
With a very simple iconic design integrated with elegant typography, the logo turned out to represent the brand perfectly and tell the story of the connection between Africa and London in a powerful way.
This design approach works because:
- Mountain symbolism: Represents reaching new heights
- Three peaks: Mount Kilimanjaro, Mount Kenya, Mount Stanley
- Simple icon: Three triangles create memorable visual
- Elegant typography: Professional yet accessible
- Powerful story: Connects Africa and London visually
Results: A Brand That Changes the Landscape
African fashion is quite low profile in London and it is time to change that. Brands such as J.Kuttin who get into the market with a great brand story, designs with style and elegance with deep-rooted connections to Africa can change the landscape quite quickly.
The brand identity we created for J.Kuttin successfully bridges professional elegance with streetwear cool, positioning them as an African-inspired London streetwear brand that helps African professionals reach new heights. The three-peak mountain logo design tells a powerful story of the connection between Africa and London while maintaining the professional and elegant aesthetic needed for business casual styles and the fun, casual appeal required for streetwear.
Today, J.Kuttin uses this brand identity to launch their fashion brand in London, positioning them as a brand that starts with business casual styles and gradually introduces bold African prints with a streetwear vibe, changing the landscape of African fashion in London through great brand story, style, elegance, and deep-rooted connections to Africa.
