The Inter-link

PAOS’ 1988 logo and corporate identity for Japanese home appliances brand Zojirushi

Zojirushi was founded in 1918, and was one of a multitude of thermos makers that popped in Japan’s Osaka region. By 1964 it had succeeded in becoming the industry leader. Between 1960 and 1980 it made efforts to sustain this position by focusing on innovation (it was the first to offer an electric thermos) and by expanding the scope of its operations. This included moving into the manufacturing of general household electrical appliances.

In 1984, PAOS and DENTSU began working on the development of a new corporate identity program for Zojirushi with the intention of ‘revamping’ its image for the the ‘post-thermos’ era and stressing its efforts to expand its industrial role.

The romanised form of the company's name ‘Zojirushi’ was selected as the basis for the design of a new corporate symbol. This would become a visual distillation of Zojirushi's four corporate ideals: innovation, technical strength, ‘contemporary stylishness’ and international acceptance. Alongside this, the wide corporate identity (CI) program had two primary goals: to make a new symbol the core of a formalised visual identity system, and improve employee awareness of the corporation’s evolving vision.

Keep scrolling to see the three concepts put forward by PAOS. Discover the conceptual notion behind the final design and how this would provided a more flexible and identifiable visual system as Zojirushi expanded.