Case study · Logo & lettering

Ayaku Cacao

A mark for an Ecuadorian cacao brand: a vessel of mysterious liquid, drawn from the Chakana cross and the Andean spiral.

Client: Ayaku Cacao
Role: Logo concept & lettering
Year: 2026
Scope: Logo lockup

01 — The brief

Two shapes and a feeling.

Ayaku came to me with two shapes and a feeling. The shapes were the stepped Chakana cross and the spiral, carved into Andean stonework for centuries. The feeling was a vessel holding something magical. The job was to merge them into one idea.

Reference photos: a stepped Chakana niche in a stone wall, and a carved spiral within a Chakana cross — Reference imagery: Chakana stonework and a carved Andean spiral. Photos: unknown, sent by the client.

02 — First sketches

Everything the shapes allowed.

I drew everything the two shapes would let me: spirals on steps, steps inside bowls, letterforms borrowed from both.

Page of ink sketches exploring spirals, stepped forms, bowls and AYAKU letterforms — The first page: every combination of spiral, step and letter.

Many small variations of a spiral sitting on stepped shoulders with the name placed around it — Narrowing down: one idea, many placements for the name.

The chosen sketch: a spiral on stepped shoulders with the name arching above — Narrowing down: one idea, many placements for the name.

One combination kept pulling me back, a soft curl resting on the Chakana’s steps. It looked like a twist of chocolate. It looked like “yum”.

03 — Route one: the curl

Too soft. Too sweet.

I took it digital and tested it in colour. The more finished it got, the clearer the problem became. It was too soft, and it looked like a children’s ice cream brand.

Curl concept as cream line work on dark brown — Cleaned up.

Curl concept filled brown on a red background — Cleaned up.

Solid cream mark on dark brown, with a negative-space spiral on a narrowing stepped stem and wide-set sans AYAKU beneath — Solid form, negative-space spiral, wide-set sans.

04 — Growing it up

Richer, but still an ice lolly.

So I made it heavier: a solid form, the spiral cut in as negative space, a quiet, wide-set sans for the name. It felt richer and more premium. But the silhouette hadn’t changed. A rounded top on a narrowing stem is still an ice lolly.

05 — Back to the brief

It asked for a vessel.

The brief never asked for a treat. It asked for a vessel. I went back to a bowl shape from my very first page and started again from there.

Sketch page of bowls with stepped patterns and spirals rising from them, with the earlier route shown in the corner — Round two: the spiral moves into the bowl, the steps become its decoration.

Final Ayaku lockup: a bowl carved with a stepped Chakana pattern, a spiral rising from it, and hand-lettered AYAKU beneath

The final mark: a dark bowl with a cream stepped Chakana line carved into it and a spiral rising from its centre

06 — The mark

A bowl of cacao.

Every shape the brief asked for now has a job.

1The steam. The spiral rises out of the bowl like the scent of something warm and mysterious.
2The carving. The Chakana’s steps are cut into the bowl’s side, like decoration on Andean pottery.
3The vessel. A bowl of rich, dark cacao.

Once it was finished, I noticed it looked like a pintadera, one of the clay stamps used in pre-Columbian Ecuador to press designs onto the body. The resemblance was an accident, but it felt right, so I named the mark the Pintadera.

07 — Details

The name found its weight.

The name had its own journey: bouncy, then geometric, then hand-lettered, with the same carved, handmade weight as the mark.

Rounded

Geometric

Hand-lettered

Scale test, from packaging down to favicon.

Concept mockup: a dark chocolate bar embossed with the Ayaku mark, half-wrapped in kraft paper with a stepped pattern, beside cacao beans and a pod

08 — In use

A stamp, after all.

Pressed into the bar, the Pintadera does what its namesake did. The carved steps and spiral hold their shape in relief, which is fitting for a shape borrowed from stone.

09 — Outcome