Fujifilm

OVERVIEW

Fujifulm is a Japanese technology company best known for their cameras and film products.

I’ve used Fujifilm cameras myself for many years and have always silently thought they could use a rebrand.

ROLE

Graphic Designer
Branding/Identity, Visual Design, Typography

Feb. 2023

Background

Established in 1934, Fujifilm began as a photographic film producer but quickly advanced into the healthcare and entertainment industries.

Their original logo featured an outline drawing of Mount Fuji inside of a circle with a script font. Today, their logo just uses the verbiage “Fujifilm” in a bold sans-serif Grotesk font. 

Considerations

Fujufilm’s current logo is fine, and although I believe the unique “I” and “F” are nice features, there’s something left to be desired. Especially compared to more modern companies, their single wordmark logo feels outdated.

My objectives were:

• Create a new icon logo.
  
• Update the font of the wordmark.
• Develop some design features.

The Process

I began by laying out all of Fujifilm’s previous logos and researching how their visual identity has shifted over the years. During my deep dive into the company, I quickly realized how massive and far-reaching Fujifilm is, which made it even more apparent that they desperately need more than a single wordmark. 

I decided to make four different logo variations; an updated wordmark, a square wordmark, and two icons, one with less detail for smaller applications. 

The Wordmark

First, I recreated the existing wordmark to get a feel of the details within it and so I could play with the a vectorized version. I changed the font to a version of Futura in a heavy weight and customized many of the letters to pay homage to elements of the currect wordmark.

Futura was selected for the logo for both pratical and subjective reasons. The bolder, more uniform font is easier to read and calls back to their logo designs before the 1990s while remaing modern-feeling. Using Futura is also simple yet attention-grabbing, making it a more approachable and inviting logo compared to its current version.





From there, it was clear that by splitting the name the wordmark could be used for applications that required a 1:1 ratio or similar, such as an app icon.

The Icon

For the icon logo I wanted to make a call back to Fujifilm’s first logo. I liked the idea of bringing the “Fuji” back to “Fujifilm”, so that’s what I did. I took the outline of Mount Fuji from the original 1939 logo and combined it with the split word mark.



Many modern brands have an icon logo from smaller applications so I wanted to go even further and create a variation with less detail. For this, I simply took out the verbiage and completed the Mount Fuji outline. This logo mark could also be used directly next to the wordmark in some cases.

The Details

In the process of creating these logos I altered the colors slightly, making the red and black more readable. I also created a gradient pattern to use as a key design element of the brand identity. The pattern represents a lens flare as a callback to Fujifilm’s roots in film photography.