Olive oil, za'atar and freekeh from Jordan Valley farms, made for shelves in Dubai and Riyadh. We named it, then designed labels that read first in Arabic.
A group of four farming families wanted to export under one name. Their products were excellent and their labels were four different photocopies. Gulf retailers asked for a brand before they would talk about volume.
We ran a naming workshop with the families and landed on Sahel, the plain. The labels lead with Arabic set in El Messiri, with the English underneath, because the buyers in the Gulf shop in Arabic first. Each product has its own colour and an olive branch drawn to survive being printed small on a jar lid.
“The buyer in Dubai picked up the za'atar jar and asked who designed it before he asked the price.”
Nabil Abu Hamdan, export lead
