PROJECT
Fun kitchen by cookpad
Japan's largest recipe site creates kitchen-based real estate venture. Providing spaces that amplify cooking joy.
WHY
The stress caused by kitchens
in your everyday life.
Eating is one of the most essential activities for staying healthy and happy in our everyday lives. In particular, cooking for ourselves is a fun and enriching experience that offers us satisfaction and comfort while also allowing us to appreciate the gifts of nature.
As the primary site of these vibrant experiences, the kitchen is essential to any home. Many people place at least as much importance on the user-friendliness of the kitchen when choosing an apartment as they do on other factors such as the rental cost, the size of rooms, and accessibility. Yet, a relatively small proportion of rental housing has a satisfactory kitchen environment. As a result, many people, especially residents of rental housing in urban areas, cook under tremendous stress or give up cooking entirely due to insufficient space or the lack of necessary functions required for cooking.
The Percentage Prioritizing Kitchen Functionality Over Housing Affordability
HOW
Creating a unit for assessing fun kitchens.
Cookpad, Japan’s largest platform for searching and posting recipes, has launched a “Tanoshii Kitchen Department” to improve the kitchen environment in homes. We have worked alongside this department since its launch and took charge of its branding and concept planning, including formulating the concept for this new business, developing the brand and its services, and providing design-related support.
First, we focused on how a “fun kitchen” should be defined. Indeed, there is no objective indicator of how user-friendly a kitchen is. This is because kitchen hardware manufacturers compete with one another. While certain manufacturers would tout the advantages offered by their kitchens, no manufacturer could provide an objective indicator. Nevertheless, we believe that Cookpad, Japan’s largest recipe provider that embraces the philosophy of “making everyday cooking fun,” can spearhead the development of such an indicator.
Our objective in developing an indicator for kitchens is to allow all kitchens to be assessed fairly and objectively alongside other property criteria such as rental cost, the size of rooms, and traveling time to the nearest station. This would, in turn, influence the value of real estate.
About VI
In designing the VI for KiT and the company’s Tanoshii Kitchen business, we emphasized portraying the “fun” of cooking, which lies at the heart of this business, in a manner that resonates with Cookpad’s corporate identity.
We have also designed the KiT logo with an outline that is a superellipse, a shape often used for kitchen fixtures and equipment such as tables, cutting boards, and knives. This shape also reminds us of our mouths, which we eat with, instantly bringing delicious flavors to mind.
The scoring rubric’s numbers and typeface have been designed using the geometric sans serif font “GOTHAM,” which creates a powerful impression with its round and endearing characters. The choice of this font allows the indicator to convey a sense of simplicity and fun.
Certification
We were also involved in designing a tool to objectively determine the Tanoshii Kitchen Score and a KiT certificate featuring motifs of curry ingredients and the mechanism that creates added value for real estate and kitchens.
WILL
The rise of fun kitchens will lead to more people
leading vibrant everyday lives.
“Tanoshii Kitchen Real Estate” has received an excellent reception since its launch, and a series of real estate agreements have been signed through this website. We expect the Tanoshii Kitchen Score “KiT” to serve as a hub for Cookpad’s various business operations in the future, including real estate proposals focusing on kitchens that involve joint collaboration with other companies.
We believe that if the Kitchen Score “KiT” can gain traction in society as an indicator that can influence property value in the same way as other criteria such as the size of rooms, accessibility from train stations, and the value associated with proximity to railway lines, more people will be able to evaluate their quality of life from the perspective of having a comfortable kitchen. We hope to play a part in creating a society where more people can enjoy cooking in a cozy kitchen and lead healthy everyday lives.
INFORMATION
- What
- Fun kitchen by cookpad
- When
- 2020
- Where
- Japan
- Client
- Scope
- Branding / Branding Strategy / Logo / CI Guideline / Promotional items / Concept Development / Research / Font
- Award
-
Good Design Award (2020)
-
CREDIT
- Art Direction
- NOSIGNER (Eisuke Tachikawa)
- Graphic Design
- NOSIGNER (Nozomi Aoyama青山希望, Jin Nagao永尾仁)
- Researcher
- NOSIGNER(Kentaro Yasuda安田健太郎)
- Photograph
- NOSIGNER(Yuichi Hisatsugu久次雄一)