Joyoung invented the machine that makes soymilk at home.

Joyoung is a lesson in inventing a category as the identity. Founded in 1994 in Jinan by Wang Xuning, it created the domestic automatic soymilk maker — and came to dominate a category it had invented.

Its identity is the soymilk maker. Joyoung makes the machine that turns beans into fresh soymilk at home — a daily ritual object in China — alongside blenders, rice cookers and induction cookers. A category it created. A staple of the Chinese kitchen.

(Honest notes: Joyoung Co., Ltd. (九阳) was founded in 1994 in Jinan, Shandong, China, by Wang Xuning (with university classmates); he is credited with developing the first fully automatic household soymilk maker (豆浆机). That machine is its signature — Joyoung created the category and dominates it in China (widely cited around 80% share, boosted by the 2008 tainted-milk scandal driving home food prep) — alongside blenders, rice cookers and induction cookers. It is made in China. On ownership, it is complex and we flag it: Joyoung is listed on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange, and its founder Wang Xuning also acquired SharkNinja (2017), merged it into JS Global Lifestyle (2019), and spun SharkNinja out onto the NYSE (2023); Wang chairs both JS Global and SharkNinja, JS Global is reported to hold around 67% of Joyoung, and Joyoung operates the Shark/Ninja brands in China — exact stakes shift, so treat them as approximate. There’s no official brand hex, and we reproduce no machine or logo — these tones are an unofficial interpretation. This is design commentary and does not promote any product.)

Joyoung lives in a soy-wellness palette. Click a swatch to copy the hex.

Joyoung’s identity is warm, wholesome and modern — a soy green, an ink, a bean cream, a warm red, and a chalk. The palette leans soy wellness — the register of fresh soymilk and everyday home health. It signals wholesomeness and ritual rather than novelty. The honest caveat: with no published brand hex, these tones are an original, unofficial interpretation, not first-party values.

The lesson is a soy-wellness palette signals a home-health ritual. Joyoung’s world is a warm, wholesome object. For designers, it is a reminder that inventing a category — the home soymilk maker — can be the whole identity, and that a warm, bean-toned palette signals wholesome daily ritual. Because a soy green can fail as small text, keep type dark and let the colour live in the accents, palette and band. The takeaways: invent the category; make it a ritual; keep it wholesome; and treat any single hex as unofficial.

The register is a modern sans — clean, warm, contemporary.

Joyoung’s identity carries a clean, warm, contemporary spirit — a wholesome, everyday object. A modern humanist sans captures the mood: it is friendly and current, the register of a home-tech brand. Set in a soy-wellness palette, the modern sans feels clean and warm — exactly the personality Joyoung carries. It is contemporary rather than clinical, mirroring a daily ritual machine. (Joyoung’s real machine and wordmark are works we describe but do not reproduce, and the exact typeface is not ours to use.) Because it is not ours to use, the honest description is “a modern sans spirit,” shown here in a stand-in. The type behaves like the brand: clean, warm and contemporary.

Joyoung stands for the soymilk maker.

Joyoung is a lesson in making a category invention the identity. A soy-wellness palette, a modern sans and a soymilk maker make a self-created category the whole brand — warm, wholesome, modern. The invention is the differentiator. The differentiator is creating the home soymilk maker and owning the category it opened.

Put to work, the identity is a habit you built. A designer building in this spirit would invent a machine for a daily ritual and make that ritual easy, so the brand becomes synonymous with the habit it enabled. The lesson Joyoung teaches is that creating a category is a durable position: inventing the home soymilk maker and dominating it gave Joyoung a foothold no rival could take, and a warm, wholesome design language keeps that daily-ritual meaning intact.

For designers and brand-builders, Joyoung offers a clear takeaway: invent the category, then own the ritual. The lessons: invent the category; make it a ritual; keep it wholesome; and be honest about the story. It is also a reminder to stay accurate: it was founded in 1994 by Wang Xuning in Jinan, it invented the home soymilk maker, and it is made in China — the palette here is an unofficial interpretation. And it is a reminder that ownership can be genuinely complex: Joyoung sits inside a web with SharkNinja and JS Global Lifestyle — the same founder chairing both, JS Global as majority parent — so we describe the relationship and flag that exact stakes shift, rather than oversimplify. It is a reminder, too, that a national moment can shape a category: the 2008 food-safety scandal pushed Chinese households toward making food at home, which accelerated the soymilk maker — worth telling honestly. Joyoung made the soymilk maker the brand — proof that inventing a category can be the difference.

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