Sungai Design

Sungai Design aims to become Bali’s leading B2B supplier of up-cycled furniture products for premium hospitality, commercial office spaces and global consumer brands – inspiring them to adopt their business model and reconsider their relationship with single-use plastics. The challenge for Swear Words in creating Sungai Design’s brand identity is to connect their activist mindset and dedication to preserving nature and the Balinese way of life, with a confident, innovative, design-conscious and globally appealing visual language.

Central to communicating the story of Sungai Design is the brand symbol – inspired by the architecture of Balinese temples, it metaphorically depicts a gateway to a more sustainable future, a method for capturing river plastic and a bracket device to draw attention to impact statements. The familiarity of the core brandmark connects with the local community and echoes the shape and process of creating plastic CNC furniture panels. In concert with the symbol, a bold logotype and flexible brand language, including a vibrant blue core brand colour and animated icons, introduce a playful approachability to the identity.

Swear Words’ brand identity design for Sungai Design has had a profound impact commercially by attracting premium markets and differentiating the brand in a crowded eco-sector. Environmentally, it promotes sustainability by using upcycled materials, directly reducing plastic waste. Societally, the innovative, appealing design encourages broader engagement with environmental issues, inspiring individuals and businesses to prioritise sustainability. This holistic approach enhances Sungai Design’s market presence and fosters a culture of environmental consciousness and responsibility across various sectors.

BRAND STRATEGY: Before the brand identity design phase, Swear Words were engaged to create a brand strategy for Sungai Design. Through interviews with the three key stakeholders—siblings Gary, Kelly, and Sam Benchighib—we established the following attributes to guide the brand identity’s creative direction: Values: Optimism, Ambition, Transparency, Harmony, Family Purpose: As a purpose-driven design studio, we are radically rethinking our relationship with waste and are committed to increasing consumer awareness through our products and their stories to enable environmental change on a global scale. Essence: Action by Design BACKGROUND: It is important to understand that Sungai Design was established as a commercial engine to fund the siblings’ environmental clean-up efforts with their NFP business ’Sungai Watch’. It is a method for repurposing the collected plastics from Sungai Watch and upcycling them into valuable retail products – creating a truly circular business model. So far Sungai Watch has collected 1,800,000 kg of trash from Indonesian waterways, cleaned 360 rivers, and diverted 305,000kg of plastic bags from the ocean.