Anthropologie VS MUJI
- Millie Fisher
- Nov 13, 2017
- 3 min read
In today’s seminar we explored two contrasting brands and their visual identity. We focused on the brands concepts, communications and stories. The two brands I was paired with were, Anthropologie and MUJI. Both brands focus on clothing, accessories, homewear, furniture, beauty, gifts and so on. However, they communicate their concepts in polar opposites.
Anthropologie have created a stand out brand, which reflects their consumers personality and personal style. Their brand story reflects their international, boho style of products. They appear to take their inspiration from an international sector and when researching the brand I discovered that the creators travel to collaborate with different artists which influence their design. Their brand is an assortment and it is ‘one of a kind’.
MUJI is a Japanese brand and they hold good quality products. The brands story is to yield simplicity and emptiness in order to communicate the same feelings and preference of all people. When researching more into the brand I discovered that MUJI in Japanese translates to “no brand quality goods”- which reflected by initial idea that the brand focuses more on the product as opposed to the packaging and branding of their goods.
Firstly, looking at these brands individually: We created a mind map in order to relate words to the images we were given. Anthropologie communicates vintage, bohemian and artsy- I feel like this brand is a lot more playful and they have a ‘fun and artsy’ concept. The brand itself is very international, it looks at a very bohemian style and maybe could adopt a Japanese vibe. I think the brand portrays a fairly folksy, quirky and crafty style.
MUJI, on the other hand, is extremely stripped back, mature and functional. The brand portrays a plainer feel and doesn’t have as much personality in comparison to Anthropologie. I would describe the brand as ‘structured’- the products seem to have order. Each product by MUJI looks as though it has a place, like it fits in somewhere, where alternatively Antropolgie communicates chaos and individuality.
When looking at the specific concepts of the brands, we concluded that MUJI’s concept is that you ‘don’t need crap’- less is more in their case and they want to show a structure in their brand and get away from the playful side that Anthropologie shows. We came down to the fact that MUJI represents a more modern, minimal approach. MUJI merely focuses more on the product and the functuality of the product, yet it focuses less on the branding and the packing in which it comes in.
Anthropologie’s concept is that it is a ‘more’ brand, and that you do need the fun and the ‘crap’ and the colour and the playfulness. We concluded that the brand is almost designed to add the vibrancy and quirkiness to a minimalistic scene. For example, you may have a bathroom which has products like MUJI’s, very simplistic and functional- but you would then buy from Anthropologie to add the colour to the functuality and add personality in your own way.
Overall I love both brands and I would purchase from both, in order to add funky to mature. I think MUJI portrays the finer things in life and reflects a simple yet elegant style, and I would buy Anthropologie to put the fun back into MUJI’s structured products.