We have developed a brand of sauces, dressings and salad dressings “Les.Delikates”. And for the illustrations that formed the basis of the packaging, we used… the sauces themselves!

Task: “I grew up on the shore of Lake Baikal in Siberia. In my childhood I spent every summer in the village with my grandparents,” says Alexandra Schmidt, the founder of the brand “Les.Delikates”. “My grandfather and I spent all our free time in the forest collecting berries, herbs and mushrooms, so that my grandmother could later turn them into jams, compotes, marinades, herbal infusions and spicy sauces (these were especially delicious). As an adult, I wanted to create something that would come from the heart of our taiga. This is how I had an idea to launch my own production of sauces.”

The recipes for sauces made of Siberian wild plants were developed together with scientists from the Russian Research Institute of Canning Technology. At the same time, this work was done with no sticking to traditions, national cuisines or “the common way”. The sauces turned out to be very original – they managed to preserve the health benefits, a bright, memorable taste as well as the mood of the Siberian nature.

The brand has an ambitious goal to create a fashion for low-calorie berry sauces rich in vitamins and to teach consumers how to transform their daily food quickly and in a healthy way. In the future, the company is planning to enter other product categories and to develop an umbrella brand of products from Siberia, not only in Russia but also abroad. The creation of a new brand — from strategy to packaging design — was entrusted to the Ohmybrand team.

Solution: The work on the brand began with a research stage when we analysed the market trends and drivers of its growth, studied consumer behaviour, the competitive environment and benchmarks in the category of sauces and dressings. At this stage, we identified the key segments of our target audience — “healthy lifestyle lovers” and “pleasurists”, as well as representatives of HoReCa — the so-called “professional” segment.

Thinking through the brand positioning, the project team relied on the main driver of the market — the desire of consumers for diversity — and on the features of the product that combines original taste, health benefits and functionality. The essence of the brand is “live sauces” – made of hand-picked wild plants, they keep their vitality and, like all living things, have their own mood and character. Just like the “water of life” from folklore, they can give some life force by turning ordinary foods into an exquisite delicacy and by satisfying people’s need for vitamins and micronutrients. Such sauces can’t be found in cookbooks because life is movement and life doesn’t follow the rules from the books.

While working on the naming, we were looking for a simple Russian name with a clear set of associations and a light feeling of a premium product. And this is how “LesDelikates” was born.

The chosen design concept based on the treasures of Siberian nature not only emphasises the positioning but also strengthens the territorial binding of the brand to Siberia. “LesDelikates” declares straight from the label that it took the best from the wild Siberian nature and created unique tastes, healthy and natural as well as bright and original,” says Art Director Anna Rufova. “The packaging is designed to arouse consumers’ interest in national cuisine and even domestic tourism — at the same time, we avoided cheap popular prints and other traditional stamps, showing what a modern reinterpretation of these topics can be.” On the packaging of “LesDelikates” you can see the iconic sights of Eastern Siberia and Lake Baikal drawn not with paint but with sauces themselves. One of the requirements for the visual concept of “LesDelikates” was flexibility and scalability, since the future plan of the brand founders is to enter new product categories. The design system that we developed provides the ability to easily adapt the packaging to new product lines when they get launched. While choosing packaging materials, an important factor was their environmental friendliness – a glass jar with a paper label is easy to send for recycling.

Result: Sales of “LesDelikates” products have successfully started online (via Instagram and on the company website) and offline (in stores in Irkutsk, Khabarovsk and other Siberian cities). The company is negotiating with retail chains to launch distribution in Moscow and St. Petersburg and is also discussing a partnership with HoReCa representatives.