New York based strategy and design agency, Combo partnered with ASHYA to craft its logomark and build upon their visual identity—reflecting tactility, elegance and legacy. The goal was to establish a brand identity with storytelling at its core and a monogram design that acts innately as a heirloom—an object preserving story, personality and culture. The monogram is symmetrically constructed with four ‘A’s facing one another, as if in conversation, a symbol of communication, community and heritage. The pattern application of the monogram, inspired by quilted + woven techniques connects directly to traditional textiles of the founders’ heritage—embodying the legacy and modernity of the brand in one. 

Research & Discovery:  Exploring themes of identity, the iconographic monogram design honors the historical tradition of oration, one of the earliest forms of storytelling, and a vessel between the past and present. Referencing oral tales of Anansi the Spider—an African fable from the Ashanti people of Ghana—speaks to the cultural intersections of the brand. Anansi lives in the telling and re-telling of stories through oral traditions that have traveled across the diaspora for centuries.