KOLAK DESIGN ARCHIVE — 2019–2026
DEV 001
BRAND DEVELOPMENT
KOLAK was developed through a continuous process of experimentation—across identity, typography, symbols, garments, characters, and technology.
DEV 001 documents that evolution: from the earliest concept behind the name to the visual systems that established KOLAK’s design language.
ORIGIN — KOLLEK → KOLAK
Concept Date: 02.27.2019
KOLAK began under the working name Kollek, a reference to the idea of collecting information, ideas, and cultural references.
As the project developed, the name evolved into KOLAK, giving the brand a more distinct identity while preserving the original concept of accumulation, experimentation, and creation.
That transition ultimately established the foundation for a broader philosophy: Keep On Living Always Kreating.
What began as a tech-fashion concept would gradually become a design system built around fashion, technology, futurism, and the visual language of Silicon Valley.
01 — FRAMEGULAR
Design: The Framegular
Wordmark: Baar Antropos Display
Concept Date: 05.06.2019
Launch: 08.02.2019
Incorporated: 08.22.2019
Framegular became one of KOLAK’s earliest visual identities.
The concept originated from the simplicity of a whiteboard: an open surface where ideas can be written, erased, rearranged, and developed continuously.
Its two-tone construction created a flexible black-and-white framework that could also accommodate additional colors, artwork, or visual treatments without losing the structure of the original mark.
The open white area within the frame was intentionally adaptable. Rather than functioning only as a static logo, it could act as a space for new graphics, imagery, and experimentation.
The identity should be able to evolve without losing its framework.
02 — POPPINS SEMIBOLD
Concept Date: 02.28.2020
Launch: 07.30.2023
As KOLAK’s identity developed, typography became increasingly important.
The brand eventually moved toward Poppins Semibold, a geometric typeface whose clean construction complemented KOLAK’s growing relationship with technology, architecture, and contemporary design.
Although conceived earlier, the wordmark became central to the brand’s visual identity during the 2023 rebrand.
Its simplicity allowed it to function consistently across clothing, digital platforms, advertisements, packaging, and editorial material.
The transition represented a shift away from a decorative wordmark toward a more restrained system—one designed to coexist with KOLAK’s increasingly complex symbols and graphics.
03 — THE BOARD
Logomark 01: The Board
Date Created: 02.18.2021
Launch: 03.15.2021
The Board introduced one of KOLAK’s most recognizable visual systems.
Its geometry draws from the visual density of computer motherboards, microchips, mechanical components, and industrial architecture.
The mark also acknowledges the influence of Virgil Abloh and Off-White™, particularly the use of directional graphics and recognizable systems that could extend beyond a traditional logo.
Rather than reproducing a single technological object, The Board combines multiple associations. Depending on how it is viewed, its geometry can suggest a motherboard, mechanical gear, microchip, QR pattern, architectural plan, or protective symbol.
That ambiguity became part of its identity.
The Board marked a point where KOLAK’s relationship with technology moved beyond branding language and became embedded directly into its visual design.
04 — CIRKUITRY 1.1 & 1.2
Logomark 02: Cirkuitry 1.1 & 1.2
Date Created: 04.07.2021
Launch: 04.19.2021
Cirkuitry translated KOLAK’s technological language from a static symbol into a wearable graphic system.
Inspired by circuit boards and electrical pathways, the design was created to travel across the body—appearing along sleeves, pant legs, footwear, accessories, and other surfaces.
The composition uses directional elements, opposing arrows, squares, and circular forms to suggest movement and connectivity.
When positioned across garments, the graphic creates the impression of information or energy moving through a system.
The garment itself can operate like architecture.
05 — KEEP ON LIVING ALWAYS KREATING
Brand Acronym: KOLAK
Date Created: 09.27.2022
Keep On Living Always Kreating gave the brand name a second meaning.
The phrase reflects the idea that creation is an ongoing process rather than a finished destination.
Within KOLAK, creativity is treated as a continuous cycle of experimentation, learning, rebuilding, and expression.
To continue living is to continue creating.
06 — THE BOARD 2.0
Logomark 03: The Board 2.0
Date Created: 10.14.2022
Launch: 11.12.2022
The Board 2.0 refined the original 2021 system.
A narrow horizontal bar was introduced above the existing geometry, giving the mark a more complete silhouette and creating a stronger visual signature.
Rather than replacing the original Board, the update demonstrated how an established KOLAK symbol could be modified while maintaining its underlying identity.
The second-generation mark became a more refined expression of the relationship between industrial design, fashion, and technology that had informed the original concept.
It also reinforced KOLAK’s developing position around a central idea: Silicon Valley as a metropolis of tech and fashion.
07 — LIMITED COLLECTION LOGOMARK
Concept Date: 02.14.2023
Concept Type: Limited Collection
Launch: TBA
This experimental wordmark was developed specifically for KOLAK’s technology-focused collection.
Its geometry draws from science fiction, computing, digital interfaces, and speculative visions of future environments.
Unlike the primary KOLAK wordmark, this version was not intended to replace the core identity. Instead, it operates as a specialized graphic language for a particular collection and world.
The mark represents exploration: an identity designed for a future that has not yet been fully defined.
08 — KAKA
Model Design: KAKA
KOLAK Autonomous Kit Assistant
Date Created: 03.15.2023
Launch: TBA
KAKA was developed as a visual character capable of extending KOLAK beyond clothing.
The design draws broadly from Japanese science fiction, robotics, manga, and anime, with Mega Man and Ultraman serving as two early reference points. Those influences are filtered through KOLAK’s own futuristic character language rather than treated as a template.
KAKA functions as KOLAK’s creative figurehead—a representation of the brand’s experimental thinking and technological identity.
Within the KOLAK universe, KAKA can operate as a model, ambassador, creative director, collaborator, and narrator. The character is intentionally non-binary.
Rather than functioning simply as a mascot, KAKA represents the possibility of building a larger fictional and visual universe around KOLAK.
09 — KOKO
Model Design: KOKO
KOLAK’s Outstanding Knowledgeable Operative
Date Created: 03.15.2023
Launch: TBA
KOKO was developed as KAKA’s counterpart and operational partner.
KOKO draws from the robotic futurism of Beastie Boys’ “Intergalactic,” the cyberpunk world of Akira, and the unconventional character language of Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike. Those influences are combined into a distinct KOLAK operative built around precision, knowledge, and futuristic fashion.
Where KAKA represents creative direction, KOKO represents organization, information, precision, and execution.
KOKO functions within the KOLAK universe as a knowledgeable assistant capable of supporting projects, solving problems, organizing systems, and maintaining continuity when KAKA is absent. Like KAKA, KOKO is non-binary.
KAKA develops the vision. KOKO helps activate it.
10 — BRAND ETHOS
Date Created: 03.23.2023
“Redefines the connection between luxury and technology as a global concept.”
KOLAK’s brand ethos formalized an idea that had already been developing through its earlier visual systems.
Technology would not simply appear as an aesthetic reference.
Instead, the brand would explore how technological culture, Silicon Valley, luxury, streetwear, industrial design, and contemporary fashion could exist within the same environment.
The objective is not to position fashion against technology, but to investigate what can happen when the boundaries between the two begin to disappear.
11 — THE SINGULAR INVERTED COMMA
Date Created: 11.16.2023
THE SINGULAR INVERTED COMMA — MATERIAL + APPLICATION STUDIES
The singular inverted comma emerged as another element within KOLAK’s visual vocabulary.
The symbol acknowledges the influence of Virgil Abloh, whose use of quotation marks demonstrated how familiar punctuation could be transformed into a recognizable design language.
KOLAK reduced the conventional pair to a single mark. That decision gave the symbol its own meaning.
The solitary comma represents the influence of one individual while also reflecting individuality itself—the decision to alter an established convention rather than reproduce it exactly.
Within KOLAK, the mark functions simultaneously as a tribute, punctuation device, graphic element, and reminder that inspiration does not require imitation.
12 — RUNWAY AS A DESIGN SYSTEM
Development Period: 2025
By 2025, KOLAK’s design language was no longer confined to individual garments or graphics. Runway presentation became another layer of the system.
Clothing, styling, movement, models, music, lighting, and presentation could operate together as one environment rather than as separate elements.
This shift expanded the brand from designing objects to directing complete visual experiences.
The collection could become a world instead of simply a product line.
13 — MUSIC AS BRAND LANGUAGE
Development Period: 2024–2026
Music developed into another structural part of KOLAK’s identity.
The influence was not limited to selecting songs for campaigns. Records, producers, regional sounds, and the website music player began shaping the rhythm surrounding the brand itself.
Payroll Giovanni, Larry June, Cardo Got Wings, Yuho Beats, and other musical references helped reinforce ideas already present inside KOLAK: independence, motion, discipline, experimentation, and self-directed growth.
The result was a growing sonic identity capable of existing beside typography, imagery, clothing, and digital design.
If typography established how KOLAK looks, music began establishing how KOLAK moves.
14 — INTERACTIVE SPACE / CITY REAL-TIME SYSTEM
Development Period: 2026
San Francisco — six visual states across the 24-hour City Real-Time system.
The City Real-Time system marked one of the clearest evolutions of KOLAK’s original fashion-and-technology concept.
Interactive city spaces such as Tokyo, Seoul, Milan, San Francisco, and other locations were designed around local time, allowing their visual environments to change throughout a 24-hour cycle.
Six visual states divide the day into deep night, dawn, morning, midday, sunset, and evening. The same environment can therefore change as the city itself changes.
Earlier KOLAK systems such as The Board and Cirkuitry represented technology graphically. The City Real-Time system allowed technology to begin operating the experience directly.
The interface became part of the design.
15 — GLOBAL INTERFACE
Development Period: 2026
Tokyo · Seoul · Milan — examples from KOLAK’s expanding global city network.
KOLAK’s digital identity also expanded geographically.
Languages, geolocation, currencies, city-specific time zones, localized interfaces, and an expanding network of international city spaces began turning the website into a global system rather than a single-market storefront.
This development directly extended the 2023 brand ethos: “Redefines the connection between luxury and technology as a global concept.”
By 2026, that statement was no longer only conceptual. KOLAK was beginning to build the infrastructure around it.
16 — THE KOLAK UNIVERSE
Development Period: 2026
The two character systems that helped expand KOLAK beyond garments into a larger visual universe.
KAKA and KOKO began as character concepts, but their role increasingly expanded into KOLAK’s broader visual universe.
Game-inspired interfaces, maps, city systems, global imagery, digital environments, and interactive concepts created new spaces where the characters could function as participants rather than isolated mascots.
This progression reinforced the idea that KOLAK could operate simultaneously as a fashion label, design system, digital environment, and fictional world.
The characters did not simply represent the universe. They helped make the universe visible.
DEV 001
KOLAK did not emerge from one logo, one collection, or one moment. Its identity developed through revisions.
Framegular introduced the framework.
The Board introduced the system.
Cirkuitry introduced movement.
The Board 2.0 refined the symbol.
Poppins established the contemporary wordmark.
KAKA and KOKO expanded the identity into characters.
The ethos established the philosophy.
Runway expanded the system into presentation.
Music introduced a sonic language.
Interactive cities turned technology into experience.
The global interface expanded the system across locations.
The KOLAK universe connected these developments into a larger world.
By 2026, the system had moved beyond identity.
Logos became interfaces.
Graphics became environments.
Characters became participants.
Music became atmosphere.
Cities became real-time digital spaces.
What began as a fashion-and-technology experiment in Silicon Valley was developing into a connected KOLAK universe—one designed to change with time, location, culture, sound, and technology.
Keep On Living Always Kreating.