Black Rice Interiors had created a unique collection of Javanese-inspired contemporary furniture, lighting and homewares made from recycled materials and needed a logo design that complemented this aesthetic. Stephen chose Rue Display Semi Bold Italic, designed by Winnie Tan, as the basis for the Black Rice type. He swapped out the R character of 'Rice' for the lowercase k, crafting a shape that unified the two words visually. The result was a custom wordmark with an organic feel that was as unique as the products it represented.
Creative Direction: Stephen Franklin
Graphic Design: Stephen Franklin
The heavy font weight reflects the rustic nature of the furniture and lends itself to course textures, as seen here in this example.
Black and white version of Black Rice Interiors logo.
Black Rice Interiors logo reversed white out of black background.
Black Rice Interiors logo reversed white on product image.
This design also holds well when reversed on solid backgrounds and with rough printing techniques like the label below.
Avenir, designed by Adrian Frutiger in 1988, was chosen as the secondary font family for the Black Rice identity. Its modern geometric look complements the organic feel of Rue, drawing parallels with the modern homes these unique homewares are destined for.
Stephen designed concepts for the van livery, utilising photography of the recycled materials used in the Papan range of the Black Rice products.
Franklin also developed the Black Rice Interiors online catalogue under his web design and development moniker SF Generator.
