- MUJI for Kids
- Less Clutter, More Wonder
MUJI Kids brings a whimsical touch to the renowned minimalist brand by refreshing the logo and overall branding, now featuring charming mascots.
These mascots, each with unique personalities, align perfectly with the four main children's product categories—clothes, toys, sweets, and home goods. While introducing a playful element, MUJI Kids stays true to the simplicity and functionality that defines the MUJI brand, ensuring a cohesive experience for the younger audience.
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- Understanding MUJI
The most important part of a brand extension is understanding the brand itself. MUJI has a clear and consistent identity: simple, minimal, and no-frills. This strong foundation made it easier for me to start generating ideas.
Focusing on children’s products felt like a natural direction, especially with the evergrowing market for children’s products. since many parents today want their child’s aesthetic to match their own. Clean, simple, and minimal. While I don’t necessarily agree with this trend, I saw it as a design opportunity.
The main challenge was balancing the colorful nature of children’s products with MUJI’s muted, minimalist look. How do you make something fun and child-friendly without breaking MUJI’s visual language?
I landed on a middle ground. Color is okay, as long as it’s used sparingly and purposefully. The key was to keep the palette soft, limit the number of colors, and use them in ways that still feel true to MUJI.
- Learning from Iconic Mascots
For the MUJI Kids extension, I designed four mascots. Each one corresponds to a letter in "MUJI" and represents a category of children's products.
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M is serious and proper. It represents clothing.
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U is wild, energetic, and coated in candy. It represents sweets.
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J is curious and playful. It represents toys.
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I is calm and sleepy. It represents lifestyle items like bedding and homeware.
I was inspired by iconic mascots like Ronald McDonald and his crew, Mickey Mouse, and the M&M’s characters. These mascots are not just faces for a brand. They are personalities that stick with you, and that familiarity builds trust and emotional connection.
According to a study, mascots improve brand recall and engagement in children's branding. By giving MUJI Kids its own cast of characters, the brand becomes easier for children to relate to and remember. This also encourages parents to return, because the brand now speaks to both the child and the adult.
- Aligning Designs with MUJI
When coming up with ideas for design opportunities, I ensured that it related to what MUJI already had in store or what they are already doing.
One feature of MUJI stores that stood out to me was the stamping station to customise one’s notebook. It was a core memory whilst growing up. As such, I designed stickers of the alphabet that is inspired by the mascots so that customers can customise their notebook with the MUJI icons.
They also had minimalistic bags in MUJI, and I thought that by incorporating the designs into shopping bags, it would strengthen the identity of the mascots.
- Incorporating Fun
With the mascots a part of the brand identity I realised that there were so many opportunities to incorporate the mascots and bring out their personalities.
I designed a short advertisement clip to be located at a nearby bus stop.
This advertisement brings the mascots to life and makes the branding more memorable.
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