Our challenge was to position a range of fermented sauces, inspired by the ancient middle eastern mango sauce – Amba, for a UK market.
Our design for the range was inspired by a ‘through the microscope’ concept, a peek into the unseen world of gut-loving good bacterium, showcasing the sense of movement in the alchemical-like fermentation process – bubbling, morphing, changing and moving to turn a raw ingredient into wonderful good-for-your tangy on the tongue fermented sauce.

We wanted to move away from leveraging the middle eastern heritage of the brand which would have detracted from the fermented concept, overshadowing it and labeling it as ‘world food’. Amba is well known in the Middle East and India (where it is more of a chutney). To position this range as something new and different, and in order to allow us to scale up, adding new flavour SKUs or even new ranges, we had to move away from Amba and create a completely new brand concept.Our conceptual guide of ‘through the microscope’ steered us towards a cleaner design, adding splashes of colour to articulate the flavour profile while keeping the illustration classic, almost rustic. We wanted the brand to be subtly rebellious; after all, it’s doing something new. So the brand name ‘ferment la bouche’ offered a simple play on words, leveraging a European cultural feel with a bit of a cheeky kick – just like the sauces.

It was important for us to only use sustainable materials, so for this concept we envisioned refillable clay bottles and wood or bamboo stoppers. The packaging shape – a conical flask -continues the story of the ‘reaction’ of fermentation, without steering too far into a clinical look and feel.