kutti lulu
Illustrated Brand Identity & Packaging
Kutti Lulu is a children’s clothing business based in London. The brand is built around the south Indian terms of endearment for “little one” and “darling”, combining Indian traditional block printing techniques for their pajama sets and British fashion design and culture.
Kutti Lulu is fun, bold, gender neutral, sustainable and handmade in India.
The goal was to create an identity that could express the idea of playful siblings, mischief, childhood, while also emphasizing the fact that the products are hand made. The visual system needed to remain professional but also slightly culturally distinctive.
The identity takes inspiration from the owner’s two children. I developed a visual language centered around play, using the motif of monkeys to communicate joy. And the stars as dreams, hope, future and also toys.
Brand Designer & Illustrator
February - May 2023
Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Photoshop, Procreate, Figma
Typography
Typography needed to look modern, clean, playful and have a resemblance to how woodcut letterforms emerge naturally when carved by hand. A little rough, a little uneven, imperfect, sometimes showing edges.
The illustration style was inspired by silhouette drawings. Because the products of Kutti Lulu are hand-printed with wood block designs, the motifs are often times stylizations recreated as silhouettes rather than lineart designs or complex styles.
This helps maintain a connection to the traditional technique. The simplified direction also contributes to a feeling of timelessness.
The recurring motifs are monkeys and stars. Particularly they are to be observed interacting with each other or with the stars as they are engaged in play.
In time, we have begun to explore multiple activities: chasing stars, stealing the star from one another, chasing one another, hanging from a star, sitting on a star, marveling at a beautiful star.
To expand, we could perhaps one day think of monkeys playing hide and seek among the stars, perhaps trying to determine whether a star is edible.
The vision is about capturing the most essential and pure forms of play and curiosity and joy found in children. This is what the products aim to offer the target audience: artisanal techniques, high quality materials and aesthetically a very joyful, fun garment.
Color
The palette draws from the idea of a lush jungle, foliage, water, creating a visual world that feels joyful and full of energy. But translated into a digital and almost cosmic world.
