Kappa Sushi’s image was, “cheap, not good, old fashioned, and no specific reason to choose Kappa Sushi over other sushi restaurants.” The lighting in the restaurants was dim and gave the feeling of an old sushi factory. This was what made us rebrand the restaurant through design.

Traditionally, sushi is served to feast your eyes and palette during celebrations. We focused on ‘Japanese colors’ to create colorful and pop imagery of sushi patterns, which were visually appealing to the customer and made the sushi experience a more enjoyable one. These were used in posters, lamps, shop curtain, and uniforms of the employees—which in turn transformed the sushi restaurant into something more modern Japanesque, bright and warm.

Traditionally in Japan, sushi is made to feast your eyes and palette during celebrations. We focused on ‘Japanese colors’ of sushi, and designed our graphic materials with a colorful and pop imagery of sushi patterns. We took care to be bold yet delicate in the design, in order to appeal visually to the viewers.

These images were used in posters, lamps, shop curtain, and uniforms of the employees—which in turn transformed the sushi restaurant into something more modern Japanesque and fun. As a result, we saw that consumers enjoyed the sushi experience more, and women and families commented that the new design was cute and tasty.

The news of the rebranding of Kappa Sushi was featured in many media outlets. Women and families expressed their satisfaction with comments such as ‘cute’, and ‘tasty’, proving that the brand image had improved. After the rebranding, sales of the Mitaka store went up by 200% and customer visit increased by 180%—with this figure still remaining steady. The successful rebranding of the flagship store has called for the full rebranding of the total 350 stores across Japan.