It’s not cool, it’s warm

Myssy

Among the fields, woods, rivers and farmlands of Pöytyä in south western Finland, there live just 8,000 people. The eldest of these have an exclusive opportunity unique to their part of the world. Retirees are sought after by Myssy, the independent fashion brand whose every piece is hand-knitted by local grannies. After being in business for 10 years, Myssy needed a new logo that would carry them beyond the next decade. Their original mark was as quirky as the company’s homeland, with y’s shaped like upside-down beanie hats — derived, like the brand name, from their first product. But by the 2020s, Myssy was being featured by Vogue Scandinavia, knitting not only hats but lingerie, sweaters and every layer between. It was time to create the high fashion logo the company had earned the right to — one that would work as a standalone brand element across all Myssy’s products. In order to create a logo that captured the peculiar charm of the brand, we had to go looking to the source of all its other magic: Pöytyä. Studying 20th century newspapers from the town, we found letters with an off centre midpoint — just the kind of subtle eccentricity we were looking for. These became the basis for the mark, refined for the high fashion space.

Discipline
Brand Logotype
Brand Typography

Contributors
Albert Romppanen
The National Archives of Finland

Anna Rauhansuu, CEO

"It felt right to begin with. This is us, this is Myssy. It was an incredible coincidence to see in the presentation a copy of an old local paper with a story of the opening ceremonies of a club house that my grandfather gave a speech at - and that we had just chosen as our next photoshooting venue. Proxy had done a stunning job, it just all made sense."

Värinä low res by albert rompannen Beanie 22

A Hyper Local Brand

The challenge was to craft a global mark that somehow preserved the brand’s very particular provinciality. At Myssy, it’s not just the grannies behind the products that are local. All wool used is shorn from the resident sheep, then dyed using produce from the area’s farms. Catalogue photography features Myssy’s team and neighbours across Pöytyä’s striking landscape. Who else would be willing to have their picture taken reclining against a bank of snow, torso deep in icy water? Despite or perhaps because of the narrow parameters, this hyper local brand manages to look truly world class, all while never sacrificing its authenticity.

A commitment to nonconformity

A large part of this authenticity is the commitment to nonconformity. Myssy’s tagline ‘It’s not cool, it’s warm’ articulates this, generated by a team of proud misfits whose unusual perspective and sense of humour can be felt across the brand. In our early logo exploration we tried to inject this through bold letterforms and container shapes at odd angles, and yet none of the resulting marks felt quite right for Myssy.

On the product, the logo sits off centre on the label, another nod to the brand’s outsider spirit. To accompany the logo, we created a range of typographic stamps to proudly draw attention to the brand’s heritage and unique production approach.