“Welcome to Uniqlo!” announced an enthusiastic sales girl wearing a mini yukata (a casual traditional Japanese garment) over western style clothes. But this was not Japan— this was New York’s 5th avenue. In 2011 Japanese fashion brand Uniqlo, whose name is a mixture of “unique” and “clothing”, opened their global flagship store on 5th avenue and began selling not just Japanese fashion but also Japan. From the entrance to the exit, shoppers are immersed in Japanese culture and business practices such as the cheerful welcoming at the door mimicking the traditional Japanese store greeting “irasshaimase”, to the two handed credit card return at the register. Instead of suppressing the Japanese elements of their brand for global consumption Uniqlo has decided to focus on them as a global business strategy and a great example of this is their redesigned logo.
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Original Logo – introduced in 1991 |
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New logo – introduced in 2006 |
The original logo introduced in 1991 used a darker wine red and was English only, but the redesign in 2006 strengthened the Japanese qualities of the logo in three ways: introducing a brighter red, including Katakana, and reinforcing the logo’s similarity to a Japanese ink seal.
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A bright saturated red circle on a white background represents the sun on Japan’s flag, and this has given the color red deep meaning to Japanese. Therefore, it makes sense that Uniqlo’s red and white logo subconsciously evoke the land of the rising sun. Kashiwa Sato, the lead designer on the New York flagship store, explained in an interview published in Uniqlo’s in-store magazine, “Yanai-san (Uniqlo’s CEO and founder) had a strong desire to communicate Uniqlo as a brand from Japan, so red, which is symbolic of Japan and is indicative of a venture capital spirit, was the perfect color to use in our Global strategy”(Sato). By increasing the brightness and saturation of the red from the previous logo’s wine red to better match Japan’s current flag, Sato-san increased the logo’s ability to evoke Japan.
Furthermore, top brands such as co*ke, Nike, Red Bull, and ESPN utilize red as the dominant color in their logo because it represents power, passion, and has been shown to have a positive physiological and emotional effect on consumers.
A 2009 study on the physiological responses to color stimulation by Chonbuk National University in Korea found that the color red had the most effect on the parasympathetic nerve system, which adjusts blood pressure, heart rate, respiratory rates, vitalizes the digestive system, and maintains skin temperature. 46% of subjects preferred red over other colors because it had the greatest positive emotional effect on them (Jin, Yu and Chung). A similar 2009 study by researchers at the University of British Columbia found that information on red cards was remembered better than information on blue cards. Furthermore, subjects placed in red rooms were more active and social than subjects placed in blue rooms (Mehta and Zhu). Further evidence of Uniqlo’s aim to evoke Japan in their logo lies in its use of Katakana, one of Japan’s character sets.
Tokyo at Night – ©2012 Manganite
本田 | ほんだ | ホンダ | Honda |
“Honda” in Kanji | “Honda” in Hiragana | “Honda” in Katakana | “Honda” in English |
Japan has four character sets: Hiragana, which is used for grammar and vocab; Kanji, which are Chinese characters used to represent words; the English alphabet, which is used to add a western and modern aesthetic; and katakana, which is used specifically for foreign words (names, brands, vocabulary) incorporated into the Japanese language. For example, Macdonald’s is spelled makudonarudo (マクドナルド) in katakana.
Katakana has come to represent foreign-cool as talked about in Douglas McGray’s 2002 article titled “Japan’s Gross National Cool” for Foreign Policy Magazine (McGray). Young Japanese view foreign brands as cool, so youthful companies such as Uniqlo use katakana words and English in their logos and marketing. Uniqlo’s global approach is especially interesting because in Japan they originally used an English-only logo, but in 2006 lead designer Kawashi Sato redesigned the logo for global use by creating a Japanese version using katakana to go alongside the original English logo, making it a unique dual language logo. In an interview published in Uniqlo’s store magazine, Sato-san explains,” I wanted to make Uniqlo a brand that represents the so-called Cool Japan and embodies Japanese pop culture, which is why I used katakana in the logo (Sato).”
Lastly we will look at the similarities of Uniqlo’s logo to modern Japanese seals.
Most Japanese have a name seal that they use with red ink to do things like sign official documents and open bank accounts. Seals come in circle, oval, rectangular, and square form, but the square form is traditionally used on works of art. By designing their logo to resemble a Japanese seal, Uniqlo further rooted its brand in Japanese aesthetics and continues the Japanese tradition of branding products with a red ink seal.
Example ofJapanese painting with red seal ( top left side ) － © ikenaga Yasunari 池永康晟
A logo’s purpose is to represent the essence of a brand in the consumers mind, and in this case, Uniqlo’s logo represents not only the essence of the brand but also where it is from — Japan. Uniqlo’s bold move to redesign their logo to include both English and Japanese expresses modern globalization and the bilateral cool-culture trade relationship between Japan and America, and it will be interesting to see if this design decision measurably increases interest in Japan and Japanese culture.
If you know of any other dual language logos please share. Please share your thoughts! Comments welcome!
Jin, Hye-Ryeonm, et al. Study on Physiological Responses to Color Stimulation. Jeonju, October 2009. PDF document.
McGray, Douglas. 1 May 2002. 5 Feb 2011. <http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2002/05/01/japans_gross_national_cool>.
Mehta, Ravi and Rui (Juliet) Zhu. “Blue or Red? Exploring the Effect of Color on Cognitive Task Performances.” Science 323.5918 (2009): 1226-1229. <http://www.sciencemag.org/content/323/5918/1226.abstract>.
Sato, Kashiwa. A talk with Kashiwa Sato Uniqlo. Uniqlo, 2011. Page 28.
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