Brands

Log & Live Branding

High-tech log homes built for analog calm.

Client
Ondřej Hat'apka / Jiří Veselý
Year
July 2026 - Aug 2026
Role
Creative Director / Designer
Agency
SapioManiac
Agency
SapioManiac
Team
  • Simona HedeCreative Director / Copywriter
  • Tereza PavlíkováPhotographer

Log & Live engineers modern log houses from premium Finnish wood, designed as biological retreats from a noisy world. The goal was to build a brand identity completely free of standard real estate hype, focusing instead on structural integrity and the raw truth of the materials.

01

The Context

When Czech founders Ondrej and Jiri set out to build premium Finnish log houses in partnership with Hirsiset, they noticed a glaring issue in the market: the competition was drowning in outdated branding and cluttered, visually chaotic websites. The industry standard was stuck in rustic clichés and low-quality imagery. They approached us to build Log & Live as a direct response to this noise. The mandate was simple: Break away from the traditional lumberjack aesthetic and create a visual presence that actually reflects the high-tech precision of modern wood architecture.

02

The Strategy

We positioned Log & Live as an antidote to the synthetic noise of modern life. Instead of selling a generic real estate dream, we framed their homes as "biological asylums" built on absolute truth in materials. We stripped away all marketing fluff and "happy family" catalog tropes, replacing them with a tone of quiet luxury and engineering honesty. Visually, the challenge was to marry the founders' Slavic roots with high-tech Finnish architecture. We solved this by treating the brand identity like a structural component- using exact geometry, a custom ampersand, and the "Binary Folk" pattern to mirror the millimeter-precision of a carpentry joint.

My starting point was looking at the good stuff that existed.

03

New Logo

I started the logo design process by crafting the custom ampersand. In carpentry, the joint is the most critical point of the build, so I designed this symbol to act as the brand's structural anchor—the exact intersection where raw material (Log) meets human biology (Live).

I kept the wordmark strictly geometric and flat, rejecting any shadows or decorative effects. I wanted it to feel more like a physical carpenter’s stamp than a digital corporate badge. The main horizontal layout reflects technical precision, while the vertical stack gives us a tight, condensed option for smaller spaces.

04

The System

I built the visual system to feel as strictly engineered as the homes themselves, starting with a rigid safe zone that protects the logo from visual clutter using exactly half the width of the letter "O" as an absolute, unbreakable boundary.

For typography, Plus Jakarta Sans does the heavy lifting with a clean, architectural base, while Roboto Mono acts as a technical accent reserved strictly for numbers and floor plans. I threw out the usual lumberjack browns and instead pulled the palette directly from the physical elements the timber interacts with over its lifespan. Carbon for the deep foundation, Fiber for the raw surface, Air for breathing room, and a sharp hit of Amber for vitality.

Finally, to honor the founders' roots without leaning on nostalgic clichés, I designed the "Binary Folk" pattern system, stripping traditional Slavic ornaments down to their pure geometric math to visually mirror the interlocking precision of a carpentry joint. Also for the images, instead of having a generic rectangular frame, we took inspiration from the blocks themselves and introduced frames with chamfered edges.

05

Imagery

We hit a classic hurdle when it came to the imagery: a non-existent budget for a massive photoshoot and exactly one finished house ready to show. To get around this, we had to get scrappy. I brought in a talented student photographer and had her shoot the absolute hell out of that single property, coming back with a treasure trove of extreme closeups, tactile wood textures, and structural joints. Next, we pulled broader architectural shots from their Finnish partner, Hirsiset, which we had permission to use. To bridge the gap, we fed everything into Higgsfield AI. By marrying the student’s raw, textural photos with the structural variety of the Hirsiset catalog, we generated a massive bank of hybrid images. The final result is a cohesive visual library that perfectly captures the brand's quiet, analog mood while staying completely true to how the physical product looks and feels in real life. Here are some before and after comparisons:

06

Illustrations

For the brand's illustrations, I avoided anything soft or overly stylized and went straight for a flat, technical route. The visual assets needed to feel like actual engineering specs rather than decorative art. I fired up Illustrator and drafted the cross-sections of the wooden blocks by hand, ensuring the interlocking joints, dimensional specs, and internal wood grain patterns were wonderfully detailed. The result is a set of precise, architectural diagrams that perfectly reinforce the brand's focus on structural integrity and transparent craftsmanship.

Hi, I'm and for the last 15+ years or so,I've been designing

and if you're a brand / recruiter looking for a designer, here's some more information about me.

Competencies

  • Creative and Art Direction
  • Global Brand Strategy
  • Brand Design
  • Visual Identity
  • Graphic Design
  • Typography
  • Layouting
  • Product Photography
  • Digital and AI Workflows
  • UI/UX Design
  • System Design
  • Figma
  • Adobe Creative Cloud
  • Generative AI Workflows
  • Higgsfield
  • Claude Code
  • Air AI
  • 360º Campaigns
  • B2B/B2C Marketing
  • Social Media Design
  • Team Development and Management
  • Mentorship
  • Stakeholder Management
  • Presentation Skills
  • Timeline and Budget Management

Experience

July 2024 – Present

SapioManiac

Creative Director

Worldwide (Remote)

  • Unified brand identity and brand guidelines for fintech scale-up MPOWER Financing across 25+ global markets.
  • Directed 10+ digital campaigns with high accuracy, driving a 45% global increase in brand visibility over 2 years.
  • Collaborated cross-functionally with GTM and Growth teams to resolve complex customer funnel bottlenecks via guided brainstorming sessions and UX design, while supervising and mentoring 3 junior designers and marketers.

April 2022 – July 2024

VML (Wunderman Thompson)

Art Director

Prague, CZ (On-site)

  • Led ground activations and global event identities for Snapchat (Dubai Expo, Snap Forward 2022).
  • Built end-to-end Figma pipelines for MSD for scale, delivering 400+ localized assets across 19 countries.
  • Migrated legacy digital assets to a consistent global aesthetic for GSK across 12 markets and 10+ brands.
  • Co-designed the “Augmentality Shift” IPSOS study and the purpose-driven WWF x LinkedIn campaign.

March 2021 – April 2022

Ogilvy

Art Director

Prague, CZ (On-site)

  • Spearheaded the localized CEE rollout of Tesco’s “Power to Lower Prices” master brand campaign.
  • Directed high-volume design cycles across CZ/SK/HU and managed major IP collaborations.
  • Guided Tesco CEE’s 2021 visual overhaul, ensuring strict creative alignment with UK HQ guidelines.

Feb 2020 – March 2021

Mark BBDO

Designer

Prague, CZ (On-site)

  • Crafted high-impact social media assets for major international brands (Levi’s, MARS, Czech Tourism).
  • Contributed core visual designs for successful agency pitches including Komercni Banka and Orlen.

Sept 2018 – Oct 2019

Sun King (Greenlight Planet)

Sr. Designer

Mumbai, IN | Nairobi, KE (On-site)

  • Directed 360º design initiatives across 6 Asian markets, managing a dedicated team of 4 junior designers.
  • Drove a 25% increase in engagement with hyper-localized, vernacular brand strategies on minimum budgets.
  • Contributed to two Rural Marketing India Awards for ‘Best Rural Campaign’ and ‘Best Digital Campaign.’

Jan 2017 – Present

Independent Freelancer

Freelance Designer

Worldwide

  • Designed assets for Spotify India’s “There’s a playlist for that” launch, winning Gold/Silver at ABBYS and The ONE Show, a Bronze at ADFEST Asia, and a Spikes Asia shortlist.
  • Led comprehensive visual identity overhauls for Goa’s largest pharmacy brand and the historic Sevagram Ashram.
  • Developed the foundational visual identity to kickstart Naagin hot sauce and designed the website for Design for Change India.

Education

April 2009 – May 2012

Symbiosis Institute of Design

Bachelor of Design

Pune, IN

  • Enrolled in the institute with majors in Communication Design (Film and Video specialization).