Hihuhu

Innovation is booming in the wool industry as designers and consumers realise its strength, durability and ecological nature as a substrate base for product development. It is a story of material innovation, using what comes from the land to remind visitors of what our land stands for: purity, innocence, ruggedness, and determination, in a premium product that reflects more of the world we all want to live in.

Ji Chuang asked us to develop a brand for their innovative New Zealand lambswool women’s flat shoe with plans to extend it into a leisure lifestyle brand. Ji Chuang is taking lambswool for their range of shoes – typically a type of wool that has become undervalued and transformed into the wool that customers value for its performance, comfort and sustainability.

What impressed us most was Ji Chuang’s vision of their follow-through, bringing their ideas to fruition. While sustainably made shoes are still a burgeoning industry, our client’s confidence and determination will make this venture successful.

Jonathan Sagar

Our brand strategy targeted to attract NZ tourists and Chinese nationals living in New Zealand who would connect with a strong provenance story. We developed a name taken from New Zealand nature – Hihuhu. “Wildly innocent” was created as a tagline reflecting the untamed and untainted landscape that makes New Zealand such a special place.

We developed a simple and friendly logo to help pronounce our unique name. Our colour palette was inspired by New Zealand’s landscape, referencing the sky, coast, mountains, hills, grasses and sands. Through imagery, we tell the story of New Zealand, which speaks to the purity of our natural landscape and where the products originate.

Hihuhu launched online in early 2021.