Pendo provide a rich, soothing and wellness-based identity for New Zealand’s Manukora honey brand

In the oversaturated wellness market, Manukora is a brand that taps into the natural resources offered by mother earth. In particular, the liquid gold of Manuka honey. Based in a small town at the foot of the Kaimai Range, they source Manuka honey from some of New Zealand’s most remote regions. At the heart of their 20-year long mission is wellness and sustainability, seen through a longstanding commitment to natural ingredients and ethical production. 

Manukora invited creative agency Pendo to create an identity that would reposition them with health and wellness at their core, resulting in an ‘upscale apothecary brand’ that is stripped down to the essentials. The Vancouver-based agency opted for a visual language that draws inspiration from both the brand’s history as well as the natural, medicinal properties and benefits of Manuka.

A pairing of Northern Block’s serif Moret and Samuel Oakes’ Metro Sans provides a careful typographic balance for the brand’s messaging. “The combination speaks to both the history and locale of Manukora, and the simplicity and transparency of the product,” Creative Director and Co-founder Peter Ladd tells us. “This combo allows for a playful approach to communications, pairing the typefaces with specific messaging, and matching the feelings we wanted to evoke.”

Pendo worked closely with Northern Block to create a custom version of Moret; a type family inspired by 20th-century European sign painting. The goal of the customisation, Ladd explains, was to create “a more sophisticated, simplified version of Moret.” In order to achieve this, the team “pulled back on all the flourishes” as well as redesigned several of their letterforms:  ‘a,’ ‘c,’ ‘f,’ ‘k,’ ‘q,’ ‘r,’ ‘s.’ “We’ve also further customised the letterforms for the Manukora wordmark,” Ladd adds “looking at each of the letterforms, and how they relate to one another.” 

Harmonising the identity is a colour palette full of natural, earthy tones which provide a soothing – not clinical – outcome.“The lead colours (yellow and brown) are derived from the colour of the product, and the association they have to Manuka honey,” Ladd explains. The warm hues then provided the starting point for the rest of the colour palette – “warm, natural tones that evoke health and personal wellbeing.”

Pendo

Manukora