Homeware brand Tuma’s visual identity is built on earthy tones and cosy illustrations

In 2022, Ilía Tuma devised the idea to start up his very own home furniture and accessories brand: Tuma. With over a decade in the design industry under his belt, it was only natural that he took the reins on the brand’s visual identity — a passion project and “one person orchestra, if you will”, he tells us, “it was a fantastic journey and taught me more than I ever expected about juggling creativity and entrepreneurship.”

The idea behind the brand? To bring together furniture design, textiles, and ceramics under one collection of thoughtful products that do something a little different. “I wanted to create things that actually mattered to the people who bought them. Objects that would stir up emotions, even a little attachment. I wanted each item to be purchased “out of love”, Ilía says. “It was all about bringing people together who are all about taking care of themselves and their surroundings.”

Working on a project like Tuma went way beyond a brand identity for Ilía, and was in many ways a huge collaboration with “all kinds of talented folks” — a way for the designer to step outside of the graphic design industry and team up with all kinds of experts across disciplines to bring a collection of products to life.

“The whole thing kicked off with the logo,” shares Ilía, “I reached out to my good friend Kirill Turygin, a brilliant type designer, and asked him to create something that was both geometric and unique.” When it came to the typography, the designer’s pairing of Graphik by type.today and Cooper by Paratype was a tool to “highlight the duality in the brand’s design approach”, says Ilía. “On one hand, we’ve got items with timeless aesthetics and functional design. On the other, we’ve got pieces that are much more about emotional design — the feelings these things evoke.”

A highlight for us is illustrator Dasha Surma’s playful characters that pop out of the brand’s soft and natural colour palette. “The brand is all about an earthy approach and a connection to nature [...] Dasha was amazing at communicating this. I was so inspired by her unique style,” shares Ilía. In these illustrated scenes the designer wanted to “explore the idea of home as a place of strength”. Dotted in amongst Dasha’s dynamic drawings are a few of the brand’s cosy home wares — a stool, a blanket, a ceramic diffuser, all nestled amongst Tuma’s warm illustrated world.