Because the Stitches Are Us
Our story has always been about more than the products we make. It’s about the hands that craft them, the history we carry, and the values that stitch us together. So, as we step into a new chapter, we wanted to share the meaning behind our refreshed branding – and why, in many ways, it’s not so much a change as it is a refinement of who we’ve always been.
In our language, Sango, Ndara means to be skilled or wise. Someone who has Ndara is someone who has skills.
We chose the name Ndara because we wanted to remind ourselves that we were skilled and wise, regardless of the civil war and the endless reports and articles written about our country - pieces that so often told only one story: a story of a failed state, without competence, without skills, with only misery and poverty.
While the civil war and our long, turbulent history are true, it is equally true that we are also incredibly resilient and deeply skilled. We have hope amidst it all. We persevere. We find reasons to try again and again. We have Ndara.
The Story of Our Stitches
When we created our first logo, we wanted it to be easy to read for our own team, many of whom have had limited formal schooling. Complicated fonts were hard for them to read, so we chose a very simple one.
I (Charlotte) have always drawn and painted. When I created Ndara, I kept sketching stitches in my notebook where I was designing our products. Those stitches eventually became patterns and weaves, and one day they led to a conversation between me and the first original members of Ndara’s team, Meryse and Nadia.
Meryse said: “It’s our stitches that keep us together - both as a team and as individuals. My stitches, stitched together with Nadia’s stitches, make a strong hem.”
From that moment, the stitches naturally became part of our logo.
Growth and Change
Since 2017, we have grown - from four artisans to a team of 17 men and women working together to bring Ndara to life. From a garden shed to a physical boutique. From one webshop to two. From our first product - our rug - to an inventory of over 70 products.
When we decided to launch our EU webshop, we knew it was also time to refresh our logo and branding. We had outgrown our original logo and felt it was time for a change, something to symbolise the changes we had made as a team and company.
Keeping What Matters
We never considered changing our name. But we experimented with the logo - removing the stitches, adding hands, and trying other illustrations.
Each time we looked at these new designs with the team, something was missing. Until Meryse said it plainly: “I miss the stitches. The stitches are us.”
So the stitches came back.
It made me think about how easy it is to believe that you must change completely to get better - to throw out the old and bring in the new. But isn’t that also a way of thinking shaped by fast-paced consumption? Maybe growth isn’t about starting over - maybe it’s about refining what already works. Honing what’s strong. Cultivating what’s true.
A New Chapter - Same Foundation
Our new logo is tweaked and refined - just as we have refined. We are still stitched together by our passion, our hope, and our resilience. By our commitment to joy, by Ndara.
Because nothing is seamless - and because we don’t want to waste - you may still see a mix of our old and new logos for a while. Our website and digital marketing reflect the updated design, but we’ll keep using our existing product tags and cards until they run out.
And it feels right, this mix of our old and new branding, even if maybe some marketing experts will tell us the opposite. Because we are still the same us - standing on a strong foundation and now eight years of history - as we move into the next chapter of Ndara. We are what we are now, only because of what we were and created then.
Branding, after all, is not just about how you look - it’s about who you are when no one is watching. And in that sense, nothing about us has changed. We are still Ndara. We still believe in skill, in wisdom, in resilience. And we always will.
