WAKAZE
“Youngsters engaged in crafting Sake”
Founded in 2016 in Japan by Takuma Inagawa and has been based in Paris from 2019 ,WAKAZE is a house of sake 100% made in France. Among many traditional breweries based in Japan, they are the only one based not in Japan who has been awarded the Platinum Prize of Kura Master, a Japanese sake competition organized annually in France.
The name “WAKAZE” comes from two Japanese words: “ 和風 — a breeze from Japan”, and “若勢 — youngsters engaged in crafting sake” in Tohoku dialect.
Thoughts
You may think it doesn’t look like “sake-like” design, if you are familiar with traditional Japanese sake, such as “Japanese calligraphy logo”. Honestly, when I saw it first time I also had a same impression. But, like I wrote in the article of Stereotypography, it is stereotypical. And once I understood the meaning of “WAKAZE”, and their manifesto: Sake Revolution — we break sake stereotypes, it seemed to be an appropriate identity for them.
The brand colors, blue and red, are suggest France, but its tone is nicely tuned to give fresh and young feels. “Shibuya hipster” like illustrations, seemed also to be a hybrid of Japanese “Manga” and modern art, are memorable and represents their team and their spirit well.
I am looking forward to hear who designed it, if someone know. And their crowdfunding is ongoing until November 15th, 2020.
