AAKASH.STUDIOCHICAGO, US

UPKEEP

A BRAND CONCEPT FOR A BARBERSHOP, ITS BOOKING SITE AND ITS BARBER APP

CONCEPT / BARBERSHOPCOMPLETE

The project

UPKEEP is a brand concept for an appointment-only barbershop in Chicago: one barber, one client, forty minutes, and a written record of every cut, so the next one starts where the last one ended. The studio made the name, the identity, a campaign, the booking site and the app the barbers keep the record in. It has not been pitched, sold or built.

A shop for clients who book the same barber on a fixed interval. The room is dim and cool: frosted glass, steel, black leather, one light over each chair. The brand had to feel as controlled as the room and carry one idea to every surface: the shop remembers what it did. The tagline says it the way a service manual would — scheduled precision maintenance.

Client
UPKEEP
Year
2026
Role
Concept — brand and product
Services
Name, Identity, Campaign, Booking website, iOS app
Status
Complete
The UPKEEP booking site's home screen: two barber chairs under spotlights either side of a frosted divider, the UPKEEP wordmark, BY APPOINTMENT ONLY and a BOOK A CHAIR button, with hairline guides on every edge of the type.

Branding

The UPKEEP direction board: the wordmark set small in Mattone on black, four swatches from onyx to ink, and notes on the wordmark, its alternate and the type in a mono face.
The UPKEEP mark, a single blade-like stroke with two finished ends, rendered in brushed steel, above four smaller versions on steel, black and pale grounds.
The mark in four cuts on alternating black and steel panels: the Line-up, the U-blade, the tall U-blade and the Edge.
The UPKEEP palette: a ramp of greys from onyx to ink, four brushed-metal gradients and a blue slate swatch, with a table of values and uses.
The UPKEEP type specimen: the name in Mattone at large size with its alphabet and figures, and the mono sizes used for titles and detail.

Campaign

Campaign post: two barber chairs either side of a frosted glass divider, the mark centred on the glass and the line BY APPOINTMENT ONLY.
Campaign post: a single chair facing a lit mirror, the chair number and time at the top and ONE BARBER. ONE CLIENT. above the wordmark.
Campaign post: a comb and a pair of scissors on steel beside the appointment card, under the line EVERY DETAIL, RECORDED.
Campaign post: the steel mark alone on black with the line THE LINE, KEPT. and the wordmark at the foot.
Campaign post: a barber's arm at work, overlaid with a client's record — member, barber, chair, interval, sides, top, part, finish, neck and next visit.
Campaign post: a black leather wash chair under a chrome tap, with the line THE BEST VERSION OF YOU IS A STANDING APPOINTMENT.
Web banner: the row of spotlit chairs with the UPKEEP wordmark across the middle and ONE CHAIR AT A TIME beneath it.
Story: a chair in front of a lit mirror, marked CHAIR 03, RESERVED.
Story: scissors hanging in front of the appointment card, under PRECISION, ON SCHEDULE. EVERY 04 WEEKS.
Story: the mark on black over four lines — 04 WEEKS. 40 MINUTES. ONE BARBER. ONE CLIENT.

Web

The booking site's opening screen: the two-chair room full bleed, the wordmark and SCHEDULED PRECISION MAINTENANCE centred, and a BOOK A CHAIR button.
The specialists section on a slate ground: three barbers, each shown by their chair, with their name, chair number and what they are known for.
The record section: a barber working on a client beside a table of the client's record, one field per ruled line.
Booking, step one: three barbers to choose from, each shown by a photograph of their chair.
Booking, step three: YOUR CHAIR IS HELD, with the barber, chair, date, time, service and price set out as a record.
The mobile grid: four columns on a phone screen, with notes on where labels and values sit.
The booking site on a phone: the room, the wordmark and the tagline, and a BOOK A CHAIR button.
Choosing a time on a phone: a row of days and a grid of open slots, one selected.
The confirmation on a phone: YOUR CHAIR IS HELD, the booking as a record, and buttons to add it to a calendar.

Mobile

CHAIR, the barber app: the day's book for chair 03, the next client highlighted with a button to open their record.
A client's record in CHAIR: barber, interval, sides, top, part, finish, neck and last visit, with notes and a START button.
A cut in progress: a large countdown against the forty-minute appointment, with the record's fields beneath it.
The cut recorded: the fields as cut, the next visit booked four weeks out and a message to the client drafted.

The record

Every client has one record: barber, chair, interval, cut, last visit, next visit. The same fields appear in the campaign, on the booking site and in the app.

The mark

The Line-up is one stroke with two finished ends, named after the sharpest edge in a haircut. The primary version is brushed steel.

The grid

One mono face, all caps, at two sizes. Hairline guides run along every text block in print and on the web; the phone screens sit on a four-column grid.

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