AND market

“AND market” is a newly developed brand of Japan’s first smartphone retailer, which operates entirely independently from major mobile phone companies. Alongside the brand name, the corporate design includes the visual identity, website, stores and promotion handouts. The brand emphasises its independence from conventional retail business and conveys the message that it provides only what customers really need. Accordingly, the brand concept was subsumed under the term “neutral” and thus integrates all designs and strategies based on this unique position in the market. “Neutral” consequentially aims at an appearance that does without any colour highlights, yet is neither explicitly in black and white; instead, the essence of the brand is expressed through a well-balanced ratio of different shades of black and white. The playful approach to typography is marked by the use of a large “&” character turned into a bird, thus lending this corporate design a humorous appeal and a high degree of recognition. Statement by the jury »This work places typography centre stage and boldly does without anything non-essential. Thus, the all too often desperate search for an artificial logo was no longer called for and this instead made pragmatism come to the fore. The reduced colourfulness further underlines the typographic play with the inside and outside spaces of the letters.«