K. Kuutvuori

Building one world across product, brand and digital.

KIMU is a Taiwanese design brand I co-founded and shaped from the ground up. Across product, identity, packaging, exhibitions and digital, I built a design language that could move between very different expressions while still feeling unmistakably KIMU.
Role
Co-founder & Lead Designer
Scope
Brand · Product · Packaging · Art Direction · Digital
KIMU product design collection
KIMU product design detail
KIMU product collection in context
KIMU product design and material detail
Tradition, reinterpreted rather than reproduced.

KIMU explores the meeting point between Asian culture and contemporary design.

Transform Tradition

East × West‍
‍Traditional × Contemporary‍
‍Playful × Refined‍
‍Object × Space

The identity was designed to feel restrained, adaptable and product-led.

Creating a consistent brand world without overpowering the objects themselves.

KIMU brand identity development
KIMU visual showing tradition transformed into contemporary design
KIMU visual exploration of traditional and contemporary forms
KIMU brand principle visual study
KIMU tradition-to-contemporary design study

Designing for the environment, not just the box

KIMU packaging displayed on a retail shelf
A package that becomes part of the space.

As a small independent brand, we couldn't rely on elaborate retail displays or exhibition builds.

So I made the packaging work harder: each box carries one part of the KIMU identity, and together they assemble into the full logo — turning packaging into a display system that could scale from a shop shelf to an exhibition wall.

KIMU packaging system across multiple boxesKIMU packaging design detail

Taking the brand from shelf to screen

The website had to sell the object without losing the story behind it.

As KIMU reached a wider international audience, the website became more than a portfolio.

It needed to introduce unfamiliar objects, communicate the ideas behind them and support direct sales while staying simple enough for our small team to run ourselves.

Designed and developed by me

KIMU website interaction and product presentation

The same principles followed us onto the screen.

Brand principle
UI / UX decision
01

Quiet elegance

→

Let the interface breathe.

Minimal typography and restrained UI create a calm browsing experience.

02

Products first

→

Give the objects centre stage.

Large imagery and quiet controls keep attention on the work.

03

Story behind the object

→

Make room for the story.

Editorial layouts connect each product with the thinking and culture behind it.

A brand built to live beyond the product.

KIMU product design exploration
KIMU product form and material study
KIMU product design detail
KIMU product concept and construction
KIMU product design variation
KIMU product design shown in use
Printed material featuring KIMU productsKIMU exhibition and product presentation
Magazine feature showing KIMU design work
Editorial feature of KIMU products
Magazine spread featuring KIMU design
Editorial coverage of KIMU products
KIMU featured in an international design publication
The work travelled further than we expected.
KIMU went on to receive international recognition across product and brand design, with work awarded by Red Dot, German Design Award, Golden Pin and Wallpaper* Design Awards, and featured by publications including Monocle, Wallpaper*, FRAME, AD, GQ and designboom.
Building a company meant every creative decision also had to work for the business: balancing ambition with resources, short-term needs with long-term direction, and individual ideas with the people needed to make them real.