Workhouse

KBAS

A woman looking over her folded arms, long hair falling across a large cream crochet bag
Brand refresh · Costa Blanca, SpainMediterranean accessories since 1969

A Mediterranean accessories house from Gata de Gorgos, on the Costa Blanca, making bags, capazos, clothing and home pieces since 1969. A considered refresh for its next chapter: heritage-rooted, never nostalgic.

Sector
Fashion accessories
Location
Costa Blanca, Spain
Services
Brand identity refresh, guidelines, packaging, signage

Not a season. An attitude. The Mediterranean, carried not as a place, but as a way of being.

i. The brief

KBAS has made bags, capazos, clothing and home pieces since 1969, in natural fibres and made to last beyond seasons.

Five decades in, with a younger sister brand, Volum, alongside, it needed an identity as considered as the pieces, and a manual its own team could work from: logo, colour, type, art direction, and every application from swing tags to signage.Statement adapted from KBAS's brand overview, in the guidelines.

Close on an openwork straw weave
Hands gripping the handles of a woven straw bag against white linen
Pattern: the K isotype in a tight grid of mauve and sand on chocolate
A woman turning in voluminous white linen, a tan suede bag at her side
Black and white: a hand holding a loose woven bag against a linen dress
Pattern: warm sand waves on dusty mauve
A grid-woven straw tote held against a long linen dress
A rough fibre tote carried in front of a white dress
A tan suede shoulder bag worn from behind over a white dress
Shapes: deep chocolate half-rounds on dusty mauve
A woman looking over the rim of a straw bag, sunlight across the weave
Black and white: a woman with a long fringe behind an open-mesh bag
Pattern: the KBAS wordmark on a diagonal in sand on ink black
A woman in amber sunglasses holding the handles of a woven straw bag up to her face
01 / 12
ii. The idea

Heritage-rooted, never nostalgic.

A considered evolution rather than change for its own sake. We redrew the hand-drawn K isotype into a symmetrical mark, paired it with a heavy, softened wordmark, and set the system to sit on photography: isotype above, wordmark below.

Drag to compare the old logo with the new one. Tap the photograph for the next look.

OldNew
The new KBAS logo: the symmetrical K isotype above the wordmark The old KBAS logo: three diagonal lines above a lowercase Kbas wordmark and the line proud of my bag
A woman looking over her folded arms, long hair falling across a large cream crochet bag A woman in white linen with long brown hair, a straw bag at the edge of the frame Hands gripping the handles of a woven straw bag against white linen A small straw basket held against a long linen dress

Logo placement as the guidelines set it: solid isotype on darker pictures, the outline on light ones.

Colour

Natural tones, local materials.

Colours inspired by the Mediterranean: the natural tones of the textures of local materials. Open a colour to see its values.

Values as specified in the brand guidelines

Warm Sand
HEX
#E1C9AF
RGB
225, 201, 175
CMYK
0, 11, 22, 12
Pantone
7528 C
Dusty Mauve
HEX
#A88EA1
RGB
168, 142, 161
CMYK
0, 15, 4, 34
Pantone
5215 C
Deep Chocolate
HEX
#522003
RGB
82, 32, 3
CMYK
0, 61, 96, 68
Pantone
4625 C
Dusty Blue
HEX
#7E9BC9
RGB
126, 155, 201
CMYK
37, 23, 0, 21
Pantone
645 C
Ink Black
HEX
#1A1A1A
RGB
26, 26, 26
CMYK
0, 0, 0, 90
Pantone
Black 6 C
Typography

One voice for headlines, one for reading.

Sao TorpesA bold, retro grotesque for headlines, signs and the big moments. Heavy and slightly industrial; best large.

InterFor everything that has to be read: product details, labels, the website.

"Mediterranean feel"The line that runs through the shop window, the social templates and the guidelines.

Mediterranean, approachable, established, authentic. We speak like people, not a brand trying to impress.

Shapes & patterns

Waves, shapes and a lot of K.

A family of shapes and patterns for linings, tissue, tape and wrapping paper, made to sit beside the pieces themselves.

A woman in a white linen dress with a tan suede shoulder bag
Pattern: warm sand waves on dusty mauve
Waves
A woman with tousled blonde hair behind a large straw bag
Pattern: the K isotype in a tight grid of mauve and sand on chocolate
K repeat
A woman in a white linen top seen in profile, long brown hair down her back
Shapes: deep chocolate half-rounds on dusty mauve
Shapes
A white linen dress and a grid-woven straw tote held at the hip
A freckled woman in white linen, one hand resting on a rough straw bag
Pattern: the KBAS wordmark on a diagonal in sand on ink black
KBAS diagonal
Pattern: the stacked KB over as logo in mauve on chocolate
KB / as
Packaging

Open the box, find the pattern.

Kraft mailers lined with pattern, an "Est. 1969" insert and a Gracias card.

Hands opening a kraft box lined with the chocolate shapes and an Est. 1969 card, on a KB over as patternHands opening a kraft box lined with the KBAS diagonal pattern and an Est. 1969 card, on the K repeat pattern
A cream Gracias card and a mauve KBAS card on olive velvetA cream Gracias card and a chocolate Est. 1969 card on olive velvet
Four KBAS swing tags: three in dusty mauve with the logo, wordmark and isotype, one in warm sand
A sand cap embroidered with the KBAS wordmark in mauve, in a blue bowl of lemons
Mauve and sand KBAS packing tape crossed on kraft card
Hands unrolling chocolate wrapping paper printed with mauve KBAS wordmarksHands unrolling wrapping paper printed with the K repeat in mauve and sand
Visualised in the brand guidelines
On the street

Seen from across the street.

The wordmark at full size: shopfront, window vinyl and the van.

Large white KBAS letters with Est. 1969 on a dark shopfront fascia above glass doors
Shopfront · visualised
A shop window under a black awning with the KBAS wordmark, Est. 1969 and Mediterranean feel in white
Window · visualised
Two vans in KBAS livery, one black and one chocolate, with the wordmark in sand and mauve
Fleet · visualised
The sister brand

Volum. Born urban.

Made for real days. KBAS's younger brand has a world of its own: a W mark, Marios Black and Montserrat, a palette kept apart from KBAS's, and a line of its own.

Pale PinkPebbleBronzeOxbloodGoldOff-Black
See the Volum case study

What we made

  • Isotype and logo suite, in seven colourways
  • Colour palette, with print references
  • Typography
  • Shapes and patterns
  • Swing tags
  • Stationery
  • Packaging, tape and wrapping paper
  • Signage and van livery
  • Merchandise
  • Social media templates
  • Email signature
  • Brand guidelines, in English and Spanish
  • Volum identity
A woman in amber sunglasses holding the handles of a woven straw bag up to her face

Gata de Gorgos · Costa Blanca

Credits

Brand identity & guidelines
Workhouse Collective
Applications
Signage, vans, packaging and merchandise are shown as visualised in the brand guidelines
Imagery
Campaign imagery generated with AI to showcase the brand