Ceramique | Brand Identity

Ceramique by Etienne Zay

About the project

Etienne Zay has been a creative since childhood. Immigrated with his parents escaping from poverty in Somalia, he brought with him the most precious thing he had: his creativity. Today he is a full-time artist and in his creative studio in Monaco he integrates African tradition, ethnic notes and clean geometric shapes. Using materials like red clay, grey clay and chalk taken from exclusively eco-sustainable sources, he supports the philosophy of 'simply being'; in fact the works are made with the minimum amount of material necessary to avoid waste, no type of paint is used and the design is clean and essential.

Ceramique, Etienne Zay's creative brand, wants to enclose the simplicity of the essential that Mother Nature makes available to us, without adding anything else. He molds matter, changing its shape and then simply lets it be.

This is Ceramique's message, beauty lies in clean shapes.

The logo design process

Throughout the process of designing a logo for the brand, the vases that the artist produces in his studio were taken as a reference. The angular and clean shapes gave rise to the idea of a logo mark that incorporates the guidelines of his projects; split into its parts, the logo mark embodies the artist's name initials, making it unique.

Through a careful search for the font that represents the brand's philosophy, we have arrived at the choice of a relaxed humanist sans with subtly curved corners and slightly flared glyphic terminals that are expressively angled where appropriate. Designing a typographic logo we have combined the expressiveness of the font with the uniqueness of the logo mark.

The solution we developed:

We aimed at creating the brand identity by enhancing the naturalness of the color palette, from sand beige to grassy green, the play of lights and shadows, the contrast between raw materials and precise geometric shapes. The goal is to attract more target audience that shares a passion for art, loves the beauty of simplicity, and wants to see beyond the form but also the deep meaning behind the brand's philosophy. It was decided to emphasize the natural-geometric contrast alongside clean, white spaces, keeping the focus on the subject and giving a feeling of modernity and reliability.