The other day my partner and very good friend Nic Waller got the honour to beta test a new webpage starting up any day now. It has several features and possibilities. One of them was informing you where there is good sushi… Or maybe just sushi - depending on the review of course. But according to Nic this was a good way to use maps and easily find the right location.

I have been in on the Asian feeling before with the “empire 23” – design. This time it´s more of a distinct Japanese look.
So we took a look the other afternoon and realised that it maybe needed some brushing up on the logotype – which Nic mentioned for the inventor of sushikartan.se. He had already put someone to work on this issue. A day or so has gone by and I’ve been thinking a bit about the logo even though I don’t think the other designer will fail in his task. You know - just getting that itching feeling in your drawing-board saying: “Get it down on paper”. So I started out with some of the basic things that this website stands for - one of course is sushi – from Japan - also maps showing where these places are and how the majority of people actually do eat sushi. Even people from this part of the hemisphere – they eat with chopsticks.

So I have placed the chopsticks in a map pattern - like something you see from a bird’s-eye view – from above - making it look like buildings on a map. The chopsticks have kept their own shape to enhance their feeling – but still making it look like streets. The Japanese calligraphy is also a feeling I try to get into the symbol too by laying them like this. The red dot symbolizes where the restaurant is placed or situated – and of course symbolises the Japanese flag. To tie up the last knot I gave the ”i” a red dot too – just in case the text part ever has to stand by itself - it should resemble the logotype / symbol. To make things clear: sushikartan = sushi-map.

Good luck with your new project – sushikartan.se.

Now as the headline reads – there are a lot of restaurants, cafés, sushi-places and the city is full of wifi places. All these subjects have been up for questions and thoughts by Mr. T. Valentine. He has started up a new concept that he recently launched. I mentioned in my previous article: ”Sushi on the map” that Nic had had a chat with him and reviewed the development part of these different websites.

sushikartan.se, wifikartan.se, cafekartan.se, restaurangkartan.se.
Kartan meaning = map.

The question is: does the client, web-surfer or viewer know that all these concepts are from the same company or that it is all thought out and handled by Mr. Valentine? A great way of strengthening a brand or string of websites / companies is to have a logo-family - a group of logos that are in some way connected or give the same feeling or vibe. Even colours give a feeling of that they somehow belong together. So if you look at all four logotypes for the different websites you can see that I have used the red ”Map-dot” as a familiarity and eye-catcher. The red often catches the eye and so do round shapes at a first glance. The red dot symbolised the Japanese flag in the sushi-version, the red dot can also symbolise wireless technology and places with the possibility to connect to free wifi, and the red dot on the cups can give the cup a coffee-brand look and vibe. Finally the last restaurant-version is a fork and knife. Here the red dot symbolises the plate.

These four versions all have in common that they have the red dot and are made in red and black on white - giving them a clean look for the viewer. But I have to say - that the most important subject the red dot stands for - is a location dot/point. Where can you find these places in the world and what kind of reviews did they get? So, just like a map-pin indicating “you are here”-dot on maps in public places… this gives you the “oh, here it is” feel!

We are showing this for Ted today. Enjoy!