Sattwa Chai - Logo & Brand Identity
I'm so excited to finally share the logo and brand identity I created for Sattwa Chai, an heirloom microbrewed chai brand! Since my work with my friends at Function Coffee Labs, I'd been absolutely itching to get back into the hospitality space and work on some more food and beverage branding. This new branding partnership blossomed just in time!
Brand Background
For over 20 years, Sattwa Chai has provided premium chai in every cup of their microbrewed chai concentrate and loose leaf dry tea, using only the finest organic and fair trade ingredients. They were one of the first companies to introduce chai to America, and happen to be the only true heirloom chai in the United States. Their chai is handmade in small batches with uncompromising attention to detail and is perfectly balanced for consistent quality brewing and easy integration with countless drink and recipe combinations.
Sattwa Chai - Brand Style
Sattwa Chai was founded in 1995 by a family with a focus on quality ingredients brewed in small batches to craft a heritage chai with the highest quality. Today that standard of excellence remains alive and well. The company recently changed ownership yet remains family-owned, now led by three women who are driven by the same passion and spirit of tradition under which the brand was founded.
Why rebrand?
With the change in leadership, the new owners of Sattwa Chai felt it was time to refresh the logo and brand identity. They wanted to stay true to the original spirit of the brand, but craft a refined new identity that reflected the premium quality and handmade element behind the brand. They were looking for branding that felt authentic, passionate, human, and full of joy. And that's the foundation that inspired our partnership and their stunning new look!
Logos & Marks
The Sattwa Chai brand identity appeals to chai lovers, coffee shops, and distributers alike. Its authentically human style reflects the story, passion, and credibility of the brand while uniquely custom elements set the brand apart and speak to the rich heritage and joyful experience that make it so special.
Sattwa Chai - Primary & Secondary Logos
The varied logos and marks give the Sattwa Chai brand an inherent flexibility so it can work well and communicate powerfully no matter how much space there is to work with.
Sattwa Chai - Secondary Marks
The primary logo is to used whenever space allows, while the secondary lockups will complement it throughout the brand. The secondary logos provide flexible options when space is more limited.
Anatomy of the Logo
The primary logo centers around the mark—a hand-drawn illustration of a hand holding a cup of chai—incorporated with typography revealing Sattwa Chai's name and tagline. The mark communicates the authentically human spirit and passion behind the brand, while demonstrating the stolen peace a cup of chai can hold for the maker.
Sattwa Chai - Primary Logo
Custom Icons
Beyond the logo, I also created some other custom illustrations to expand the depth of the brand. The Sattwa Chai identity includes 2 sets of custom icons, each with a unique focus.
Brand Characteristics
Sattwa Chai Custom Icons - Brand Characteristics
The first set alludes to the unique characteristics of the brand—handmade in small batches, globally and ethically sourced for over 20 years, family-owned and passionately led by 3 women, and perfectly balanced for easy use and versatile for other recipes.
Chai Ingredients
Sattwa Chai Custom Icons - Chai Ingredients
The second set of icons showcases the beauty of chai’s ingredients in their natural form—ginger, cardamom blossoms, cloves, and piper nigrum (black pepper). Of course, I couldn't stop there. These handmade illustrations were just begging to be made into a custom pattern!
Seamless Patterns
The Sattwa Chai brand finds a new level of depth and distinction through its use of custom patterns. These beautifully extend the brand and provide a gorgeous foundation for collateral such as business cards, stationery, packaging, and beyond.
Sattwa Chai - Custom Patterns
The botanical pattern incorporates the chai ingredients in their natural form. Meanwhile, the speckle and dot patterns use handmade elements to create more abstract visuals to be utilized throughout the brand.
Sattwa Chai - Custom Patterns
Each of these custom patterns utilizes uneven spacing between its contents to achieve a more natural and human aesthetic, consistent with the rest of the brand’s tone.
Collateral
I include 3 pieces of collateral with my brand identity package, allowing me to bring the brand to life even more while showing my clients how it should be used, and providing them with a few branded items to get them started. The ladies of Sattwa Chai chose the custom icons, business cards, and a postcard design.
Sattwa Chai - Foil Business Cards
The business cards are foil stamped with their signature lady jumping for joy on the front, surrounded by the the beautiful ingredients of the heirloom chai. They incorporate different paper stocks for each member of the team, drawn from the brand's rich palette.
Sattwa Chai - Postcard
The postcard incorporates the brand's logo, custom patterns, and icons to tell the story of Sattwa Chai and introduce their stunning and strategically crafted new look to the world.
Kind Words & Happy Clients
I'm so thankful that these ladies found me, and was so thrilled to watch the brand evolve throughout our work together. I know I enjoyed the process, and it's wonderful to know these ladies felt the same.
Melissa created wonderful work and it's so fun to see "us" in the brand! She is extremely talented and the creativity and thought behind each element she created is astounding.
I can't wait to see what this new chapter of Sattwa Chai's story holds, and hope we're able to collaborate again soon! I've got my fingers crossed that we can partner on some packaging next!
