Beyond the sights — to the people and the land.
景色の、その先へ。
01 · The Idea ／ 理念
非日常を求めて旅に来た人を、あえて日本の日常に連れていく。
The extraordinary lives in the everyday.
The name ／ 名前
澪 (mio) is the wake a boat leaves, and the deep channel that guides it safely through the shallows. In Japanese the character has long carried a second sense: to guide, to find one's way, to open a path through life. mio tabi doesn't guide you to sights, but somewhere inward — and when the journey ends, something is left behind, in the land and in you. That trace is what we hope to leave.
The promise ／ 約束
A quiet immersion in the ordinary daily life of Japan — satoyama living, a life alongside nature, food and farming, the chance encounter — until the way you see has shifted a little. One guide. One guest. One place at a time.
Who it speaks to ／ 旅人
Travellers who want the everyday of a place, not its postcard. Curious, unhurried, and looking less for a sight to photograph than for something that might quietly change how they think.
What the brand never does ／ やらないこと
✕ Photo-stops and landmark-hopping
✕ Scripted, one-size itineraries
✕ Volume over depth
✕ Translating Japan into something it isn't
✕ Staging "Japaneseness" as performance
03 · Positioning ／ 立ち位置
One wall, two sides.
The wall of language and context — and the guide who crosses it.
For travellers
Journeys that never reach deep.
Behind a language barrier, the things you want to ask go unasked — and a trip that could have touched something deep glides across the surface.
For makers & places
Intent that never gets across.
Something wonderful to offer, and no way to carry it over — the maker's intent, the context, the conversation all stop at the wall.
One wall runs through both sides.
The traveller's "nothing reaches deep" and the maker's "we can't get it across" are the same wall: language and context. mio tabi stands on that wall — the guide beside you all day, crossing it in both directions.
Three brand pillars ／ 柱
Proximity ／ そばに
A full day beside the guest; closeness is the product.
Earned trust ／ 信頼
Places scouted on our own feet; relationships built with makers by name.
Carrying meaning ／ 意味を運ぶ
The brand moves meaning between people and places — never volume.
05 · The Wake ／ グラフィック
The signature line
One continuous, tapering line trailing the badge — the wake a boat leaves, the 澪 channel drawn on water. It is the brand's only graphic device, and it is lifted directly from the mark's own artwork, not redrawn.
Lifted directly from the mark
Trailing the badge
Its native, correct use — beneath the full lockup.
As a divider
Cropped to a single ripple, run wide between sections.
Corner accent
Bleeding off a page corner on a full-colour field.
Rule: the wake appears once per surface. Never tile it, never use it as a pattern, never rotate it past the horizontal.
06 · Colour ／ 配色
Palette
Calibrated to the shipped mark — indigo and vermilion sampled directly from the artwork. (Tip: click a swatch to copy its hex.)
紺青 Konjō
#1B2C41
RGB 27·44·65
CMYK 58·32·0·75
Structure · dark ground
朱 Shu
#EF454A
RGB 239·69·74
CMYK 0·71·69·6
Accent only
墨 Sumi
#101D26
RGB 16·29·38
CMYK 58·24·0·85
Text
生成り Kinari
#FAF8F5
RGB 250·248·245
CMYK 0·1·2·2
Paper · light ground
Usage ratio
56%
30%
10
Kinari grounds everything; konjō gives structure; sumi carries text; shu is a 4% accent — never a background field.
07 · Typography ／ 書体
Type
澪 永 Aa
Shippori Mincho
Display · Japanese · 500 / 600 / 700
The voice of the brand — every Japanese setting and every large headline. A warm, traditional mincho with calligraphic stroke contrast.
Aa Beyond
EB Garamond
Editorial · English body · regular / italic
Running English text, captions and the taglines — set in italic. Literary and unhurried; it reads like a good travel essay.
MIO TABI
Hanken Grotesk
Labels · UI · captions · 400–700
All-caps labels, navigation and fine print — always tracked at .2em. The quiet, modern counterweight to the two serifs.
Pairing: Japanese in Shippori; running English in Garamond italic; all-caps labels in Hanken at .2em. Never mix the two serifs in one line.
08 · Voice ／ 言葉
How we speak
Assured,
not loud
We know the place. We don't need to shout it.
Specific,
not generic
A farmer's name, a valley, a season — not "authentic Japan."
Quiet
expertise
Depth shown, never performed. Let detail do the work.
Reverent
of place
The land and its people come first; the traveller is a guest.
Primary tagline
景色の、その先へ。
Beyond the sights.
Example headlines
A week in a valley that isn't on the map.
Breakfast with the people who grew it.
The sauna, the river, and nowhere to be.
Boilerplate ／ About
mio tabi designs solo-guided journeys into the niche cultures of Japan — satoyama life, food and farming, sauna and wellness — for travellers who are already here and want to go deeper than the sights. One guide, one guest, one place at a time. We follow the channel the water leaves, to the people and the land beyond the view.
09 · Art Direction ／ 写真
Photography
Images carry the colour; the palette stays quiet so they can. Treat photography as a soft duotone — konjō in the shadows, kinari in the highlights — for covers and hero use. Editorial galleries may run full-colour but always muted.
Do
Natural light · real moments · hands and process · people over places · texture and weather · room to breathe.
Avoid
Landmark hero shots · crowds · heavy saturation · on-camera flash · posed smiles · drone clichés.
