Although the label started in Brazil in 2018, it’s traditional Foutas (handwoven, flat textiles) are currently crafted by artisans in Tunisia, the founders’ homeland. With a shift of production to Brazil, Fouta Harrissa’s goal was to “visually connect the brand to the country”, without cutting ties to Tunisia, shares lead designer Solenn. The team decided to preserve aspects of the original branding, such as its English and Arabic wordmark. Design wise, they took a bolder approach to the all caps Roman wordmark with a tighter, chunkier version of the type, filling it in with a much more fiery red than the brand’s original burgundy, which, “more directly evokes the spice of the harissa in the brand’s name”, Solenn tells us. This then led the design to “warm, earthy tones such as brown, yellow, and pink”, throughout the rest of the design system.
Framing became an important device for the studio’s art direction across the project. Beyond it’s wordmark tweaks, Sometimes Always wanted to give the textiles brand strong enough visuals to mark campaigns and launches, without relying on a logo as its signature. “Our initial mood boards and references drew heavily from vintage Tunisian and broader Arab cassette and vinyl visuals, often rich in elements and framing,” shares Solenn. These graphic references fed into a series of simplified but decorative geometric frames that give images more expression. Wheat paste posters, printed labels and the brand postcards look sun-kissed and dog-eared, like a good book you’ve been reading all summer at the beach.
This handcrafted and imperfect approach to print formats and image treatment aims to “echo the craftsmanship behind Fouta Harissa”, Solenn explains, “creating a constant dialogue between the identity and the product”. Like many of the studios visual identities this was a way to let the product take centre stage – rather than the brand name, in the soft film shots of the textiles against backdrops of Brazil’s landscapes.