Homework: Build Your Brand Kit · Tuba · 13 October 2026
Pinterest board: pin.it/4szUVCkYB
Tekna is the personal brand of Tuba, a designer-engineer who turns early ideas into real startups and digital products. The name comes from techne, Greek for craft: technology made with a maker's care.
Calm · Precise · Vibrant · Joyful · Refined
Corporate or cold · Generic tech-bro (dark mode + neon gradients) · Cheap or templated
Portfolio website · CV · Pitch decks and slides · Instagram · LinkedIn · X
"Light through structure." Carved jaali screens (India) and Tadao Ando's concrete and light (Japan), worn like clean techwear. Structure = tech, lace = craft.
 Sidi Saiyyed jaali, Ahmedabad — the lace pattern of light, not the stone itself |
 Tadao Ando, Church of the Light — calm grey and one precise line of light |
 Chichu Art Museum — hard geometry made soft by light |
 Kumiko lattice — Japan's answer to the jaali, a bridge between my two cultures |
Images: Wikimedia Commons. See the full reference board.
| Image | What I am taking from it | |
|---|---|---|
| Sidi Saiyyed jaali | The lace pattern of light on the floor, not the stone itself | search |
| Jaali light and shadow | Shadow patterns as a texture I can use in backgrounds | search |
| Stone lace / lace texture | Fine, repeated detail: craft at a small scale | search |
| Modern jaali facade | Proof the pattern can feel contemporary | search |
| Ando, Church of the Light | Calm grey, empty space, one precise line of light | search |
| Ando concrete interiors | The smooth grey of concrete for my neutral colour | search |
| Chichu Art Museum / concrete stairs | Hard geometry made soft by light and shadow | search |
| Minimal techwear | Functional, clean silhouettes | search |
| Neutral outfit + orange piece | Neutral base + one bright accent = my colour rule | search |
| Saffron marigolds | This orange, but deeper and less neon | search |
| Torii gate vermilion (朱色) | The vermilion India and Japan share | search |
| Washi paper | Off-white with warmth, not pure white | search |
| Kumiko / asanoha | A lattice that echoes the jaali; base for my own motif | search |
| Swiss grid posters | Generous margins, strict grid | search |
| Editorial layouts | Lots of white space, calm reading | search |
| Geometric sans posters | Clean, engineered letters | search |
| My own photo (campus, Chiba) | Shadows through a fence: my own "jaali", found close to home | take it myself |
Rule: about 75% light colours (Petal Cream, Fuji Lilac, Rose) and 25% strong colours (Kesari, Akane, Koki-murasaki).
| Swatch | Name | Hex | Inspired by | Use |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Petal Cream | #FBF3EC | Pale centre of the flower | Main background | |
| Fuji Lilac 藤 | #DDC8EE | Lilac petals | Soft sections, jaali pattern | |
| Rose | #EBC2D8 | Mauve-pink petals | Tags, highlights, playful details | |
| Kesari केसरी | #F4782D | Indian saffron, deep orange | Shapes, icons, highlights, big headlines; never small text | |
| Akane 茜 | #D30000 | Red heart of the flower | Headlines, buttons with white text, the sun/circle motif | |
| Koki-murasaki 濃紫 | #5C1142 | Darkest purple petals | Body text and dark sections (replaces black) |
Contrast: Koki-murasaki on Petal Cream 11.9:1 · on Fuji Lilac 8.4:1 · on Rose 8.2:1 · Akane on Petal Cream 5.1:1 · White on Akane 5.6:1 · Kesari on Koki-murasaki 4.7:1. Kesari on Petal Cream is only 2.5:1, so saffron is for shapes and big type, never small text.
| Role | Font (Google Fonts) | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Headlines | Space Grotesk | Engineered, geometric, a little quirky: precise but joyful |
| Body text | IBM Plex Sans + IBM Plex Sans JP + IBM Plex Sans Devanagari | One family that covers English, Japanese and Hindi, so the brand looks the same in all three |
| Labels / small details | IBM Plex Mono | Like the tags on techwear: the "tech" in Tekna |