If there was a time for a new look, it was this year. Over the years, our brand has grown tremendously - from working on our kitchen table with only one baby to working out of our warehouse with four keiki in tow!
Our Logo Over The Years
If you were with us from the start you may remember our original logo. It was just a simple stick-figure that I attempted to make like a child drew it. While it was fitting while The Keiki Dept was a passion project, we quickly outgrew it once the business became more of a side hustle.
The Keiki Dept Logo. circa 2016
In 2017, The Keiki Dept became an official side hustle. I was still teaching full-time but the business grew to meet my goal to create supplemental income to pay for diapers and help pay for daycare. I knew that I wanted to raise my son knowing and learning about his Hawaiian culture and we chose Kalo as the symbol of our brand. It was my first way of reconnecting to our Hawaiian culture and everything about Kalo roots us to our past, present, and future (more on this in a future blog post).
The Keiki Dept Second Logo circa 2017
Our revised logo had 2 keiki sprouting from the makua plant, symbolizing my two keiki (we had found out we were pregnant with our second child) and my husband. I was not training in graphic arts but I knew this logo was too detailed for some of our branding so we also added a text logo to our brand.
The Keiki Dept. text logo circa 2017
We also added a kalo icon logo in 2019 to our branding identity as we expanded our products to include older keiki. We realized that older keiki might not want to be called keiki (or have that written on their clothes where friends could see) so we added a logo that we wanted to become an iconic representation of our brand. This also would carry over to products for our makua (adults).
This second logo did get a small refresh after to include two more keiki to the makua plants.
The Keiki Dept. Logo refresh circa 2020
2023 Brand Refresh
This year is a big one for us. It will officially be 6 years in business! While our product offerings have changed over the years and we no longer sew everything in house, we have the same passion to create Hawaii inspired clothing and accessories for your keiki.
This year we not only will be moving into a larger warehouse, we hope to finalize our trademark (something I should have done a long time ago, a story for another day)! The timing to refresh our brand was perfect as we will new need signage for the space and I wanted to celebrate our trademark approval with a new look!
I contemplated having an artist do our rebrand for quite some time and I'm a firm believer that things will happen when it's supposed to and it will all fall into place. We crossed paths with Prowlanu at Hoomau Hawaii Market (but I was actually a fan from before meeting him). After talking to him, I felt an instant connection that he would be able to give the logo the refresh it needed but also still rooted in our core values as a company.
It was important for me that our logo embodied a youthful appearance, remained rooted in our past, present, and future as we try to encourage families to learn more about Hawaiian culture and the need to protect our island home.
The Keiki Dept Logo Refresh by Keanu Wilson, Prowlanu
What's next for our look
Over the next few months and year, we will roll-out products with our new look and logo. Because we have our inventory lined up for the year and do not want to waste products such as packing materials, hang tags, stickers, and woven labels, we will use up our current stock of old branding materials.
We look forward to creating our new warehouse space featuring our new look and can't wait to share more of that with you!