Aloha

Aloha wanted a rebranding of their corporate identity as well as a new web presence. They wanted their branding to reflect their values and their focus as a service provider: naturnahe Gartengestaltung and Bio-Staudenproduktion, near-natural garden design and organic perennial growing, across two sites.

They also wanted room to expand into sub-brands later, so whatever we landed on had to carry the separate parts of the business without being rebuilt.

The rebranding took place over a couple of months and worked towards a branding that communicated a more authentic and appropriate identity to potential clients.

I pitched several directions rather than a single recommendation. With a small client that is the more useful conversation, since seeing real alternatives side by side is how someone who does not work in design works out what they want.

The design approach centred on organic themes. The branch and hand translate the partnership between nature and human intervention, and represent their core values of working with, not against, nature and wild gardening practices.

Deep green-blue and ochre, with a serif wordmark.

Aloha is not one thing. They design gardens, grow perennials, sell plants, advise, and do permaculture work. Each part talks to a different customer, and none of them needed a brand of its own.

So the mark stays fixed and the colour carries the difference: Gärten in ochre, Stauden in olive, Beratung in rust, Pflanzen in pale sage, Permakultur in deep green. Adding a division costs a colour rather than a redesign.

The palette we chose was called Bergen & Tal. Ochre and a deep navy carry the mark, with rust, sage, olive and forest green for the divisions. It is specified in CMYK as well as RGB, because a gardening company prints things.

Cardo for headings and Avenir LT Std for body text.

The website was designed with a minimalistic style so that the important information was at the forefront. They wanted to start simple with the ability to scale up and include pages for their educational offerings.

Overall it allowed for a good pairing between portfolio images and informative text. It is still online and still in use today.