After more than 20 years supporting beauty, hair, and aesthetics businesses, Kitomba has refreshed its brand. We wanted to share the process just in case you’ve been thinking about a rebrand for your salon.
The past two decades have reshaped our industry. New services have emerged, client expectations have risen, competition has intensified, and business owners have become more sophisticated than ever. In that time, Kitomba has grown too. Our software is in the cloud, our customers are more successful than ever and we have an exciting vision for the future.
We realised our brand needed to reflect that evolution.
Maybe you’ve felt the same in your own business?
This announcement isn’t just to show you our new look. It’s to pull back the curtain on why we made the change, how we approached it and the questions you can use to shape your own brand journey.
Why we decided it was time for a rebrand
We came together as a team and asked ourselves:
- Does this brand reflect the maturity of our product?
- Does it represent the creativity and sophistication of our customers?
- Does it speak to the future, or the past?
- Can it flex to suit salons, clinics, studios, barbers and multi-site enterprises?
When the answers were mixed, we knew it was time.
And these are the questions we encourage every salon, spa and clinic to ask. A brand that once fit perfectly can become too small, like a uniform you’ve outgrown.
Do your research
Before refreshing our brand, we went straight to the people who know this industry best. We spoke with customers and experts including Buoy, Rumours Are True, Clarke and Co and leaders in the industry like Tamara Reid from Inside Industry.
It was a constant process of iteration. When we shared early concepts with Sam from Buoy, she didn’t hold back. Our first iteration was “too safe, too boring”. She challenged us to be bolder because she thrives on creativity, expression, and attitude.
That feedback gave us the confidence to be braver.
Collectively, the insight was clear: today’s beauty brands need to feel beautiful, purposeful, and flexible enough to reflect both bold creativity and refined simplicity. That became the foundation of the new Kitomba.
What we learned about branding from our own process
1. Your brand must match your evolution
Businesses evolve quietly. You introduce new services, refine your client experience, upgrade your space, or grow a stronger team culutre. Often the last thing to catch up is the brand.
A rebrand is less about changing who you are. And more about making sure your outsdie reflects your inside.
2. Your clients can love completely different aesthetics, and still be united by taste.
One of the biggest insights from our research was that our customer base spans a huge spectrum.
Some are bold, eccentric, expressive, colourful.
Some are refined, minimalist, pared-back, luxury focused.
At first, we were worried we’d have to choose between them. Then we realised something powerful:
No matter their style,
every Kitomba customer loves beautiful things.
That became the anchor for our approach. And can be an anchor for yours too.
3. Consistency isn’t sameness. It’s clarity.
Whether you run a clinic with a calming monochrome aesthetic or a high-energy creative studio bursting with colour, the key is this:
Your brand should feel intetional, not accidental.
When design, tone, experience, and communications all align, your clients feel it. Consistency builds trust, professionalism and confidence. And it directly impacts your success as a business.
The creative direction behind the new Kitomba
Balance between bold creativity and refined simplicity.
Our industry is full of expressive personalities and beautifully curated spaces. We wanted a brand that could hold both truths.
A wide, expressive colour palette
Our customers are vibrant, creative people and our brand reflects that. We built a broad colour system inspired by real beauty professionals, giving us flexibility to express energy when it’s needed.
Feel like a boutique hotel
To balance that energy, we anchored our design in the sophistication of a boutique hotel. Curated, intentional, purpose-driven, beautiful. This ensures our brand feels premium and timeless, no matter how expressive it becomes.
Quirky display fonts paired with elegant core typography
This gives us range. Expressive when the moment calls for creativity, refined when clarity is key.
A design system built around people, not software
While we’re a tech company, our identity is shaped by the people who use Kitomba. Their passion, personality and dedication to their craft.
What this means for the industry
We didn’t refresh our brand to simply look different. We did it to stay aligned with the businesses we support. And to inspire them to think about brand in the same way.
Your brand is an asset.
An attractor.
A story.
A promise.
When it reflects who you truley are and who you’re becoming, it becomes a powerful tool for growth.
Whether you’re thinking about updating your salon identity, refreshing your clinic’s look or evolving your online presence, we hope sharing our journey helps guide yours.
Where Kitomba goes next
Our new brand marks the beginning of a long-term commitment to performance, beauty, innovation and customer experience.
We’re here to help you run a smarter, more efficient and more successful business. And now our brand finally matches the way we’ve always felt about this industry:
It’s bold. It’s beautiful. And it deserves software that feels inspiring as the work you do every day.
Here’s to our next chapter, and yours.