Praktika designs Idle Hour’s matcha as the antithesis of rush hour

The Brand Identity: Idle Hour is the antithesis of rush hour. And it’s the reason a small reclining figure sits at the conceptual core of Praktika’s identity for the London-based matcha brand. The posture rejects forward momentum and proposes a pause instead. Founded after more than a decade of digital product work, Idle Hour began with its founder wanting to make something tangible – something with texture, ritual and weight. The idea formed in Los Angeles over a cup of matcha and travelled back to London, in a country famous for a different kind of tea.

Praktika has been brought in to develop the identity, packaging and art direction for a brand that sources small-batch ceremonial matcha directly from Japanese farmers and pairs it with ceramics and accessories from makers around the world. Idle Hour exists between cultures and disciplines, inspired by Japanese craftsmanship without imitation. The brief asked for an identity, packaging and art direction that respects the origins of matcha while positioning the brand within design and culture, making that ‘between’ the difficult part. It leaves a narrow lane to design inside.

“Instead of borrowing specific visual elements, we focused on underlying values in Japanese craftsmanship such as restraint, material sensitivity and attention to detail and translated those into the identity,” explains Rokas Sutkaitis, Designer & Partner at Praktika. That translation produces a reduced palette, quiet typography and layouts that rely on the relationship between space and proportion. Two typefaces carry the system. Office Times, a serif by BoulevardLAB, takes the primary brand role for its calm, editorial quality.

Greed, a condensed sans serif by Displaay, handles the technical information on the small metal tin labels, where its narrow form earns its keep in tight spaces and introduces a more functional voice. Neither typeface gestures toward Japanese design tropes, and that absence is deliberate. The lying man works alongside a hand-drawn Idle Hour wordmark that wraps the tins in soft, irregular lettering, and the two marks operate independently across the system.

As a standalone logomark, the reclining figure appears embossed into the lids and isolated against generous space. The founder arrived with a clear direction to steer away from fake Japanese lettering and the familiar tropes that brands use to signal authenticity, and Praktika was equally reluctant to operate inside a language and culture neither party fully understood. The decision to stay within a Western design context made the colour question simpler: rather than treat packaging as a surface to decorate, the studio has emphasised the materials themselves. Tins are left as nude metal.

Colour appears only in small, controlled ways, primarily through label stickers that indicate the type of matcha – blue for one cultivar, yellow for another, red for a third. In a category defined by saturated greens, the absence feels confident. The work developed in sequence, with each stage feeding the next. “We started with the logo directions, which established the core tone of the brand,” says Sutkaitis. Packaging followed as a way to test how the identity behaves in the real world, and the broader art direction extended outward from there into photography, composition and styling.

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The article discusses a unique branding strategy for a premium product in a competitive market, highlighting a fresh approach to identity and design that is relevant for brand strategy professionals.