Made by Marlo, Episode 3: A Portal to Play

Let’s talk about the design process.

We’re a creative studio after all, so building the brand’s identity was always going to be personal. This part of the process felt like coming home, experimenting, referencing our childhoods, and building a brand world that felt playful and ultimately like us.

We grew up in the early 2000s, a time of early internet, Pacman, MS Paint, Tamagotchis. Nostalgia is powerful. It’s a feeling, a sensory memory that brings us back to simpler times, times when things felt more magical, more carefree. People love to look back for comfort, and we wanted to tap into that emotional nostalgia.

At Marlo’s Matcha, our world is pixelated on purpose. Our logo and branding are inspired by the pixel, the building block of digital creativity. We want these visual cues to be a portal back to a time when we were free to create just for the joy of it. For many of us, childhood was a creative playground. As kids, we were all artists. We drew on walls, built castles out of cardboard boxes, made up entire worlds with just our imaginations. But somewhere along the way, life got serious. Creativity became something you had to be good at to keep doing.

We want to build a world that invites you to go back — back to that playful version of yourself. Back to curiosity. Back to limitless imagination. Marlo’s Matcha is rooted in nostalgia, imagination and joy and the design language reinforces the brand’s youthful and creative spirit.

We’re still working on the final identity (and keeping some of it under wraps for now). But for now, here’s a peek into the world we’re building, one pixel at a time. :)