Ohana Architects Logo

The design for the Ohana Architects logo is inspired by the kalo (taro) plant, which is a native Hawaiian plant that is also a popular food source in Hawaii, poi. In the early moments of brainstorming for the logo, my wife said: "I envision something simple and green to demonstrate life; perhaps your logo could be a kalo plant!". I said, "Well, I don’t know; that seems kind of cliché for a logo in Hawaii". For those of you living outside Hawaii, this is a very beautiful and recognizable plant used in a lot of Hawaiian imagery and logo. She then took the next step to look up “kalo” on Wikipedia and found this description: 

"…the Hawaiian term for family, ʻohana, is derived from ʻohā, the shoot or sucker which grows from the kalo corm. The reason being: as young shoots grow from the corm of the kalo plant, so people, too, grow from their family."

Wow! Through her research we discovered that the word Ohana, the driving concept behind my business, is directly related to the kalo plant! AND, the reason behind this connection is how family members are developed and raised. With this knowledge, the kalo plant now MUST be my logo! I then reached out to Joe Preston, a close friend and graphic genius, to develop the logo. Joe attended architecture school with me, and has gone on to become a web developer. I won’t explain the logo any further in language, but I have included his concept sketches for you to see our thought process!