ooak

Radically reinventing senior living through sophisticated, sustainable products crafted for the older and bolder. It's freedom from grey.

Aging shouldn’t be a quiet surrender to the grey, clunky, and clinical. For all their spending power, seniors represent an enormously underserved market, routinely subjected to mass-produced mobility products that completely ignore their individual personalities and preferences. Semper Semper partnered with ooak to radically reinvent senior living through beautifully considered, sustainable products and services, starting with their flagship modular walking stick, The Uno.

ooak partnered with us to craft a brand that would radically reinvent senior living, through beautifully considered sustainable products and services. To help people live their best later years, championing independence, connection, peace and joy. The company's original name, ‘One of a kind’, was shortened to the acronym ooak (pronounced ‘oak’), drawing strategic inspiration from the mighty tree’s resilience, beauty, and grace. Driven by the central concept of ‘freedom from grey’, we built a visual identity designed to ensure older generations never have to shrink into invisibility.

The brand’s symbol elegantly maps out this philosophy, capturing the individual's 'oneness'—the foundation representing earth and peace, while the canopy represents the sun and joy. Colour and understated elegance anchor the brand, leaning into simple, finely crafted layouts and raw, honest materials. Bold product imagery handles the heavy visual lifting, paired with vibrant lifestyle photography that champions seniors living life at their vibrant best.

To match ooak’s deep commitment to the planet, the design approach seamlessly integrates sustainable practices: locally printed packaging, on-demand 3D printing, recycled materials, and reclaimed wood from Aotearoa keep the brand light on the Earth. The resulting identity speaks with warmth, confidence, and a touch of quiet rebellion—proving that aged care can be sophisticated, sustainable, and built to last. Like the people it's beautifully crafted for.

Services
Brand identity
Copywriting
Art direction
Packaging

Team
Sam Ashby, Strategy, Design and Art Direction
Erik Hay, Copywriting
Sjoerd Olislagers, 3D Visuals
Linus Nelson, 3D Visuals
Saint Andrew Palauni Matautia, Photography
Jeff McEwan, Photography

ooak tasked us with building a brand to radically reinvent senior living. The goal was to launch their flagship modular walking stick, The Uno, while challenging the industry standard of forcing seniors to fade into a sea of beige and grey. The brand needed to reflect and extend the product’s design ethos, to appeal to seniors that value good design.

We anchored this idea in the name ooak (One of a Kind), drawing on the oak tree's natural resilience and grace, giving the demographic a brand that mirrors their lifelong character, whilst aligning to the materials in the products. The brand mark integrates several themes: The circular shape represents an individual’s ‘oneness’, whilst the bottom represents Earth (peace) and the canopy Sun (joy) for a recognisable symbol that can be used with or without the wordmark. ooak as a word also serves as a functional differentiator in a dense and competitive SEO environment. A simple wordmark was ultimately chosen in consideration of legibility for the target audience.

Anchored on the platform ‘Freedom from grey’, the strategy subverts clinical senior stereotypes by leaning into rich colour, character, and understated elegance.

Moving away from standard pastel or clinical aesthetics, we curated an expansive colour spectrum spanning soft peaceful tones, joyful brights, and contemplative darker shades to wrap around the four core product colours: Kōwhai, Coral, Pacific, and Graphite.