Decade’s reimagining of Maisonette’s identity opens us up to the joyful and playful world of kids

Speaking to the grown-ups buying for kids, Maisonette is a one-stop-shop for what makes up their world. Fresh on the scene in 2016, they quickly became known for their luxe kid’s clothing but since then, have expanded into everything and anything for kids of all ages and styles. Turning to New York-based creative studio Decade to reposition their brand identity, their expansive visual shaping of Massionette reflects the evolution of the brand and their future ambitions. Spanning from brand identity and tone of voice to animations for tv and social – Decade have sparked the wonder and joy of what it can mean to be a kid. Decade’s love for Lotta Nieminen’s original identity meant that they decided to thoughtfully preserve the existing look and feel of the brand. However, in slightly refreshing the logo and type system, Decade choose to adopt Canela Deck due to its heavier weight and legibility in smaller sizes. Decade explain the thinking behind the wordmark, “it’s still closely based off Lotta's original logo – all we’ve done is slightly thicken and track it in a bit so it can be more legible at a smaller scale for digital applications.” Aiming to complement the use of illustration in the identity, Decade’s custom handwritten elements offer a fresh and versatile touch to a busy yet balanced design direction. Packing another typographic punch, they opted for GT Walsheim Regular as the supporting player in an already dynamic combination. With Maisonette’s original doodle as the starting point for patterns and colours, Decade created a toolkit from various hand-made styles of paint, cut-out paper and squiggles. “The type system is super clean and then all the additional elements have been hand-done to feel looser and more playful,” Decade tell us. Their aim to give Maisonette a flexible and versatile identity shines through in their endless high octane colourways, textural patterns, joyful illustrations and dynamic typographic choices.