Kato Sake Works

Kato Sake Works is a local sake brewery in Bushwick, Brooklyn run by Shinobu Kato. R&M designed KSW’s brand identity and sake bottle label system.

The logo is a modernization of a Japanese “mon” and was made in a range of optical sizes. The finish of the logo and the accompanying wordmark is meant to carry forward the feeling of “craft” sake by means of softened, decayed, stamp-like forms.

R&M expanded the wordmark into a five-weight type family named Kato Mono, to allow the brand’s voice to extend beyond the logo. It’s comprised of a basic Latin character-set, with a continuously increasing Japanese character set.

Each sake variety has its own color, pattern, and typographic treatment. The sake bottle labels showcase the typeface’s bilingual nature by interspersing English and Japanese characters. This treatment exploits Kato Mono in a modular way, adding cohesiveness to the packaging system while spotlighting each distinct flavor.

The brand system extends out to other applications: the maekake (traditional sake brewer’s apron produced in Japan), taproom menu, apparel with illustrations by Tomi Um, coasters, sake variety tasting cards, garage murals, glassware, and more.