Client
Saicho Tea
Category
Brand Identity, Packaging
Location
UK
Saicho are award-winning tea connoisseurs on a mission to bring their sparkling tea to the drinks receptions and dining tables of the world. Specialising in 24-hour, single-origin cold brewed teas, their products deliver a palette of delicate and complex flavours that pair perfectly with food, making them a delicious alcohol-free alternative to wine.
Inspired by the History of Tea
The brand takes inspiration from the wooden crates that were used to transport loose-leaf tea around the world. These wooden containers were often adorned with stencil lock-ups, decorative borders and origin language typography all of which provided us with a rich source of authentic and relevant graphic references to for us to build into the brand.
We worked with Ukrainian illustrator Yuliya Kalinichenko to create a series of decorative illustrations that reference the flora and fauna common to the areas where the tea is produced.
Taking cues from cultural references and tea culture, we configured a stitched effect to the illustrations inspired by fine silk embroidery common in the eastern art.
The resulting illustrations were used on key elements of the branding such as the neck labels and secondary packaging.
Brand Name Origin
SaichÅ (767 – 822) was a Japanese Buddhist monk credited with founding the Tendai school of Buddhism based on the Chinese Tiantai school. He is also said to have been the first to bring tea to Japan.
