Soava is an ethical and responsible Malagasy concept store. The goal is to promote sustainable products fashioned by the local communities of Madagascar, in Europe. The target audience is UK consumers.

Brief and tasks: The main brief was to create a luxurious logo with a motif and elegant typography. The client and I brainstormed over various routes to arrive at an individualistic motif. Ultimately, the iconic baobab tree stood out as our top contender. Native to Madagascar, the Baobab tree stands tall as a sheltering presence, signifying support and not losing sight of one’s strong roots. The brand guidelines would lay the groundwork for not only the prosperity of Soava & it’s digital and print image, but also the very hard-working locals. Key strategic directions: One of the main decisions was picking the Baobab over the local lemur or other exotic flowers of Madagascar & zeroing down on an elegant, sophisticated look and feel.

Design process: My challenge was to re-interpret this wonderful tree and produce a minimalistic rendition of it. I used line-art to help myself accomplish this and took cue from the Art Deco aesthetic to style the overall motif. The colours employed are organic and earthy to celebrate the ethos of Soava and also invoke the feeling of being close to nature. Emerald and gold were chosen as the primary colours to accentuate this feeling and ensure brand-recall. Deliverables: The identity is used on the brand’s social media and overall digital presence, letterheads and business cards as well as labelings for the products in the form of stickers and tags.

Results: This was an incredible, fulfilling project to work on. This brand is created by the talented Madvi Harchad & this project is created in association with Rishi Shah of Svoot, Mumbai. They deserve a lot of credit for helping me reach this final product and for striving hard to help Soava reach new heights.