Na Kapuna Ukulele Club of Chicago

The Project: The players, dancers, and singers of the Na Kapuna Ukulele Club bring the Aloha Spirit to Chicago and across the country. The group was in need of a t-shirt to wear to their annual luau and fundraiser.

Pono co-founders Lauren Okura and Paul Maeda each have family and close friends within the group and offered to put together a logo inspired by the hand-drawn type Lauren's grandfather (a retired graphic artist) had created for posters and event banners he made for the group. Once the logo was set, they created the shirts as well as a website to share and archive the talent and history of this amazing group, incuding a custom graphic featuring two NaKapuna ukulele performers.

Fun fact: This was Lauren and Paul's first design project they worked on together outside of their fulltime jobs. So even though this was before Pono was founded, you could say this was their first-ever Pono project!

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About NaKapuna Ukulele Club of Chicago:

In 1997, a group of Hawaiian-American seniors got together and formed a ukulele club in Chicago. They called it the Na Kupuna Ukulele Club, as Na Kupuna means “elder” in the Hawaiian language. Together, the group of island and mainland born seniors sing, strum the ukulele and dance the hula to over 300 songs, including iconic Hawaiian classics like “Aloha Oe”, “Blue Hawaii”, “Hawaiian Wedding Song”, and “Kaulana Na Pua”. The group has held countless performances over the years, all across Chicago and as far as Hawaii. www.nakupunaukuleleclub.com