Umami Chef - A Taste of Japan with a Creative Twist

At the start of the year, we were excited to be approached by Jackie Bailey, who had been referred to us by our wonderful clients at Pershore Juneberries. Jackie was in the early stages of launching her own Japanese food business and needed a unique brand identity and packaging to bring her vision to life.

Her new venture, Umami Chef, specializes in the Japanese culinary ingredient Koji – a fermented rice product widely used in miso and other traditional dishes. Impressively, Umami Chef is the first business in the UK to manufacture Koji, catering to a niche audience of high-end chefs and adventurous vegan home cooks.

Jackie came to us looking for a logo that balanced fun with professionalism, and she wanted it to have a subtle nod to the oriental roots of her business. In our initial designs, we played with elements of Japanese aesthetics, drawing inspiration from traditional motifs. However, after reviewing the concepts, Jackie felt that the brand needed to emphasize the "chef" aspect more strongly, moving away from the purely oriental theme.

That feedback sparked a new creative direction. We designed a clever logo that combined the "U" from Umami with a chef’s hat, elegantly blending the two to reflect the heart of her brand. To give it a unique twist, we incorporated lettering reminiscent of fonts commonly seen in Japanese anime TV shows. This subtle touch brought in the Japanese influence without being too overt, and Jackie loved the fresh approach!

With the logo successfully finalized, we turned our attention to building out the rest of the brand identity. We designed business cards, letterheads, and key features for her website, ensuring everything tied together seamlessly with the new logo.

A few months later, Jackie came back to us with an exciting new challenge - she needed packaging for her flagship product, Koji White Rice. This was a first for us, and we couldn’t wait to dive in. Drawing inspiration from the visual elements we had already developed, we crafted a sleek, professional design for the pouch packaging that stayed true to Umami Chef’s brand identity.

Today, Jackie’s Koji product can be found online, ready for both professional chefs and home cooks alike to explore the umami magic of this traditional ingredient.

We’re thrilled to have played a role in bringing Umami Chef to life and are incredibly proud of the work we’ve done with Jackie. Watching her brand grow and seeing our designs on the products she’s so passionate about has been a rewarding experience, and we can’t wait to collaborate with her again on future projects.