West Coast start-up Cookma, which offers a meal delivery service and a product line for parents to inspire a cycle of deeper, self-care, has launched with a vibrant and uplifting brand identity designed by San Francisco-based brand strategy and design studio Landscape.

Founded by entrepreneur Lisa Chatham, Cookma is rooted in Ayurveda and traditional wisdom and aims to be the premium yet pragmatic choice for mindful parents interested in postpartum wellness.

Chatham, who previously founded catering business Green Heart Foods, decided to launch Cookma following an intense personal discovery of Ayurvedic principles and approach to nourishing new mothers as well as her own experience as a new mother.

Chatham says: “Modern cultures don’t recognize the importance of caring for a woman after childbirth the way we did traditionally. Pregnancy is about the mother, while post-birth tends to focus on the baby. The Ayurvedic approach considers the void that is left when the baby leaves the body and fills this space with nourishment. It is this approach of holistic nutrition that I want to share.”

Adam Weiss, Founder and Creative Director at Landscape: “By providing nourishing and meaningful meals catering specifically to new mothers and birth-parents, Cookma is bridging a crucial gap in the parenting experience, and we’re proud to have created a design that doesn’t just articulate the vitality of Cookma’s service, but celebrates the unique postpartum period through warm, uplifting design.”

Building a company with brand in mind

For Chatham, design had to be part of the business from the foundation stage, which meant establishing an authentic, extensible, and enviable Cookma brand from the company’s inception.

“I previously spent 12 years building a 4-million-dollar business, but without much initial thought to brand identity, with no plan, structure, strategy, messaging,” she explains. “I wanted Cookma to have the focus, the guide rails, the ability to grow that a good brand identity can provide. Investment in design was something I felt was essential”

To that end, the brand identity and design of the customer journey formed an integral part of the development of the Cookma service, with the former needing to represent the core principles of honesty and beauty that are at the heart of the brand.

Gradients and glows

Visually, the brand has been designed to exude warmth. Mackenzie Brookshire, Landscape Creative Director says, “An earthy color palette complemented by a system of radiating glows, timeless typography, tactile materials, and richly toned photography — these elements harmonize together to convey the feeling of inner warmth and joy Cookma seeks to nourish in these early, intimate moments of new parenthood.”

Cookma’s primary brand color palette was largely inspired by founder Lisa Chatham’s approach to cooking – rich with spices and plants that combine to nourish and restore warmth to the body. The glowing visual elements draw inspiration from the colors of earth, air, fire and water while hinting at the three doshas – vata, kapha, and pitta.

From the rich and inviting color palette to the sophisticated but not pretentious choice of typeface (Louize Display), Cookma achieves what Brookshire calls “an intimate and tactile experience that invites a sense of calm, warmth, joy, and a love for learning more about your body and motherhood.”

Precious and vital

Whilst Landscape founder Weiss worked with Chatham to develop the project, he himself had just become a new father; and his partner, a long-time friend of Chatham’s, tested prototypes for the service. As a result, the Cookma brand experience, while deeply rooted in Chatham’s vision, also takes natural inspiration from Weiss’s own family’s experience of this unique postpartum period in parents’ lives.

“It’s a precious and vital time – but one that can also leave families feeling isolated and unsupported,” says Weiss. “For that reason I’m incredibly proud that our design aids Cookma in shedding light on, supporting – and infusing warmth into – these formative moments in life.”

Cookma is currently rolling out its services across the San Francisco area.