{"id":2963,"date":"2010-02-18T12:34:34","date_gmt":"2010-02-18T17:34:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bgpublishing.com\/bgp\/?p=2963"},"modified":"2022-01-15T09:43:26","modified_gmt":"2022-01-15T14:43:26","slug":"bgps-spyglass-spotlight-umami-treats","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bgpublishing.com\/bgp\/bgps-spyglass-spotlight-umami-treats\/","title":{"rendered":"BGP’s Spyglass Spotlight — Umami Treats"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

BGP\u2019s Spyglass Spotlight<\/strong> is a series of commentaries dedicated to showcasing some of my design projects, the clients that commissioned them, and the way those projects took on creative lives of their own. <\/em><\/p>\n

Umami Treats and Gourmet Delectables<\/strong> is a Detroit-based catering company, founded by Chef Robin Steele in 2004. As a company, Umami has come to be known for its specialty items — delicious chocolate chip cookies and pastries made from scratch. When Robin first introduced me to the concept and business plans, I had reservations about the name. In comparison to many small bakeries and cookie companies, Umami seemed either too exotic or too ethnic for the typical confection brand.<\/p>\n

\"Umami<\/p>\n

The word Umami is of Japanese in origin, loosely interpreted as ‘good taste’ or ‘deliciousness’ although it has many levels and many meanings. Oxford English Dictionary advisor Michael Quinion sums up Umami as \u201cThe fifth taste, sometimes associated with a feeling of perfect quality in a taste, or of some special emotional circumstance in which a taste is experienced. It is also said to involve all the senses, not just that of taste. There’s more than a suggestion of a spiritual or mystical quality about the word\u201d. During a conversation, Robin emphasized that food that achieves the Umami taste looks great, smells great, tastes great, feels great and even sounds great when it\u2019s being eaten. She believes that there\u2019s a spirit of love and passion that transcends the cooking process and causes an almost orgasmic awakening of the senses for the person enjoying the food. After days of research I came to the conclusion that Umami is one of those words like \u201cZen\u201d — conceptual, experiential, and steeped in cultural dimensions that would probably be considered enlightened by most Western schools of thought.<\/p>\n

\"early<\/p>\n

Because of the factors mentioned above (and Chef Steele\u2019s personality), I decided that only an unusual design was going to work for Umami Treats. A logotype wasn’t enough. And although I personally love how the word Umami looks in its native Japanese Kanji, when the average American sees Asian writing on a package design they tend to assume it\u2019s a product for Asians. With Detroit\u2019s population being a little over 81% Black, 12% White, 5% Latino and 1% Asian, this brand definitely needed mass appeal. I also needed a somewhat surrealistic representation that would tie the brand name in with the product without being too symbolic. The final design had to have a hint of an old fashioned enclosure yet still look new enough to convey \u2018progressively traditional yet fresh and organic\u2019.<\/p>\n

\"Umami<\/p>\n

I went through quite a few ideas before coming up with a rough sketch I was ready to present. After importing the sketch into Adobe Illustrator, I reached a bit of an impasse about halfway through the manual tracing process. Because of the size of the cupcake in proximity to the cookies, it didn\u2019t look like a cupcake. The top looked more like a baked mushroom cap and the cupcake liner resembled a stiff curtain at a cheap hotel. And where I called myself having fun with the idea of alternating orange and canary yellow beams radiating from a golden Sun, ethnic symbolism crept back into the picture\u2026 this time in the form of the \u201cRising Sun\u201d, Imperial Japan\u2019s World War II flag.<\/p>\n

A few days later I spoke with Chef Steele and learned of the proposed Umami Treats coffee house in the works. Whether I was caught up with inspiration or frustration, I ended up completely scraping the cupcake and sunbeams. Instead, I added a coffee cup off in the distance of a warm, vague landscape. Luckily, this helped the chocolate chip cookies gain a greater presence in the final design.<\/p>\n

Umami Treats — Brand in Action<\/h2>\n
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