Premised on the notion of ‘regenerative utility’, leather goods label Yu Mei calibrates the codes of luxury and functionality, always with reverence for the environment. Founder Jessie Wong partnered with us to realise a comprehensive, ongoing rebrand grounded in the Yu Mei brand pillars of materiality, practicality and regeneration. With a view to accentuating premium functionality within a coherent aesthetic ecosystem, we took cues from the vocabulary of archiving and indexing to build a design system balanced on elegance and practicality.

Applied throughout the headless ecommerce website design and development, a clear and utilitarian typographic structure extended to practical applications such as SKU numbers and store addresses. Accompanying essential information on material provenance and properties, diagrams and hover systems deconstruct each bag so as to highlight its technical specifications. A dedicated ‘Art of Packing’ system demonstrates the features and capacity of each bag, illustrating Yu Mei’s focus on thoughtful functionality.

Flexibility for evolution and seasonal adaptation was built into the brand system. The membership-based editorial and community platform ‘Club Yu Mei’ referencing the look and feel of newsprint to emphasise inclusivity, enhanced through tacility – guests to the store are invited to pick up a copy of the broadsheet. Translated to print, the guiding principles take the form of business and store cards that nod to the index card format, reinforcing the tactile quality and meticulous craft at the centre of a refreshed brand that has rapidly established itself at the forefront of ethical luxury goods in New Zealand and beyond.