Mercari is a Japanese consumer-to-consumer marketplace app launched in July 2013, operated by Mercari, Inc. The company’s visual identity has undergone two significant documented changes: a 2018 logo redesign and a 2019 corporate typeface introduction.
Design and History
On October 31, 2018, Mercari introduced a new logo design for its marketplace app, along with updated corporate logos for Mercari and its payment service Merpay. The company stated the redesign was prompted by entering its sixth year and aiming to become a more familiar infrastructure supporting buying and selling in daily life. The new logo was designed around themes of “flatness” (approachability) and “fairness” as a trustworthy marketplace, while carrying forward the sense of excitement and delight associated with finding treasures or successfully selling items from the previous design. The “mercari” logotype was also changed to match the new logo mark.[1][2]
The redesign was led by Mercari’s internal CXO Design Team with external partners. Design innovation firm Takram partnered with Mercari to redesign the logo, with Taro Yumiba serving as lead designer and Kinya Tagawa as CXO advisor. Masashi Kawamura of creative agency PARTY NEW YORK (Whatever Inc.) was appointed Brand Creative Director and worked on the logo renewal as his first assignment.[3][4][5]
According to Takram, the new logo retained the distinctive “m” element from the original mark while simplifying its form. Refined proportions and carefully balanced stroke weights were intended to improve clarity and legibility across digital and physical touchpoints. The design team reportedly created and tested hundreds of logo proposals before settling on the final version.[3][6]
In 2019, Mercari changed its corporate logotype and commissioned a custom corporate typeface called Mercari Sans. The typeface was developed by Takram, Mercari’s in-house design team, and Monotype, with Akira Kobayashi serving as type designer. The project aimed to create a typeface conveying trust and openness, used across websites, print materials, IR documents, advertising, and service logos.[7][8]
Meaning and Symbolism
The 2018 redesign was explicitly framed around two concepts: “flatness,” meaning the logo should feel familiar and approachable to anyone, and “fairness,” reflecting Mercari’s positioning as a reliable marketplace. The design also preserved the earlier brand identity of “excitement of jumping out of a box,” while expressing Mercari’s vision of an open and fair marketplace through a simpler, friendlier logo mark.[1][5]
Mercari’s brand colors are officially designated as mercari Red and mercari Blue. According to Merpay’s service logo guidelines, mercari Red is specified as HEX #FF0211 (Pantone 186C) and mercari Blue as HEX #4DC9FF (Pantone 292C). These colors are defined from RGB monitor display values, which the company noted made finding exact matches in standard print color systems like PANTONE or DIC difficult, leading to the creation of an original color chart in 2022.[9][10]
Typography and Design
Mercari Sans, the corporate typeface unveiled in 2019, was designed to embody the organization’s brand values of trust and openness. The typeface works in harmony with Tazugane Gothic, Monotype’s Japanese typeface, as the Japanese corporate font. The integrated font system was intended to provide consistent cross-language messaging across Mercari’s platforms and services.[8][7]
The Mercari logo mark is referred to internally as the “hex” (hexagon), and the company has documented rules for how the hex is combined with service names for new services under the Mercari brand structure.[11]
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