Case study · Logo & Brand Mark

A sub-brand built to look like family.

Freelance logo and brand mark for Shio's Pan, a Rari-Tea sub-brand.

A hybrid mark that reads as both the corgi and the salt bread, drawn to match Rari-Tea's type and built to scale down to a stamp.

Role

Sole designer

Timeline

~1 week

Discipline

Logo & brand mark

Type

Freelance

01 — Problem & context

The problem

Shio's Pan is a limited-release salt bread sold only through Rari-Tea on select Saturdays, made by a separate owner. The owner set the brand architecture, an in-house extension that reads as part of the Rari-Tea family while standing on its own. My job was to make that relationship visible and design the mark that carries it.
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The mark had to read as both Shio the corgi and salt bread, hold the family resemblance to Rari-Tea, and survive at stamp size in one color. Those constraints drove every decision that followed.

02 — Process

Process

The work was logo-led. Each decision protected one thing: the mark stays readable as both ideas, at any size, in one color.

01 · Concept

One form, two reads

I built the identity around a single hybrid mark instead of a mascot beside a wordmark. The body segments do double duty as the bread's coils and the dog's form, so one shape carries the premise that Shio is the feeling of the product.

02 · Family resemblance

Borrowing the parent's voice

I set the wordmark in Rari-Tea's own typeface so the type itself signals the relationship, not just the curated-by line. Customers already read that typeface as Rari-Tea, so reusing it ties the two brands before anyone reads a word.

03 · Cohesion

Mark and type as one unit

I drew the mark's strokes thick to match the weight of that typeface, so the brandmark and wordmark balance instead of competing. The goal was a lockup that looks designed together, not a mark and text placed side by side.

04 · System

A face that does two jobs

I drew a corgi-head submark set for small spaces where the full hybrid is too detailed, then gave it a function. The three expressions signal whether salt bread is for sale, sold out, or not selling that day. Everything runs in one color on the green and cream inherited from Rari-Tea.

03 — Solution

Solution

The delivered system, four parts.

PRIMARY MARK

The hybrid brandmark.

· Dual read. Corgi and salt bread in one continuous outline.

· Matched weight. Thick strokes tuned to the wordmark so the two balance.

· One color. Reproduces as a solid in black, white, or brand green.

WORDMARK & LOCKUP

The wordmark and full lockup.

· Shared typeface. Rari-Tea's own face, used as the main signal of the tie.

· Relationship line. Curated by Rari-Tea makes the connection explicit without claiming Rari-Tea made it.

· Locked stack. Mark, wordmark, and tagline fixed for primary use.

SUBMARKS

The corgi-head submark set.

· Status signal. Three expressions for sale, sold out, and not selling that day.

· Built for small. Drops the bread read so the face survives at stamp scale.

· One-color ready. Reverses on brand green or sits solid on white.

APPLICATION

The Saturday-only flyer, designed by me.

· Designed by me. Flyer built on the owner's product photo.

· Reversed lockup. The white mark holds over the photo.

· Inherited color and message. Type and tagline frame the limited Saturday drop.

04 — Outcome & reflection

A small identity that holds

The provable win is the work itself: a sub-brand mark that reads as family, carries two ideas in one shape, and holds from full lockup down to a stamp-sized face. No business results are claimed. The job was a tight, defensible logo system, and that is what it delivers.

01

Craft win: the mark and the type share a weight and a language, so the lockup reads as one designed unit.

02

System win: the submarks do double duty, surviving small scale while signalling daily availability.

03

Constraint carried forward: inside a parent brand, distinction has to come from the mark while the shared type holds the family tie, a balance I would push further with more time.