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"Persian Apothecary" Is A Tea Collection Inspired By The Richness And Complexity Of Iran

by Chloe Gordon on 03/10/2022 | 3 Minute Read

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"Persian Apothecary" is a Tea Collection inspired by the richness and complexity of Iran. The blends are a reflection of Sheyda Monshizadeh-Azar’s (our client) imperfect memories, her Iranian heritage and her experiences whilst living and travelling in Iran.

The sense of smell is the best shortcut to memory and that was Sheyda's task in defining her tea blends. But our responsibility was to communicate those sensations from the packaging, and to evoke a feeling of nostalgia for the past in a context and a place that few people know about, and worse, that has been dehumanized to us through the media. We had to tell the story of those who consider Iran their home, but who remember it fondly from the outside.

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Our creative direction led us to think of the packaging as if it were the cover of a book, since a cover has the responsibility to represent in a single image, the hundreds of pages that contain it. And it is only through a good book that we can understand a place, a culture and a feeling. That is why the names of the teas are like the titles of novels, and the photograph that was selected in each one of them pretends to summarise and transmit those feelings.

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On the sides of the boxes, each tea has a different poem that corresponds to the sentiment to be conveyed. The poems are written in their original language (Farsi) and in English. In addition to the logotype and emblem, we designed a pattern inspired by Middle Eastern patterns, this is used on the label that goes directly on the can.

The color palette stands out for its strength and boldness, it was inspired by the colors of Iran. And being a project designed by a Mexican Studio, it was nice to realize that as a culture, we have a lot in common.

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It was an honor to be able to work with Iranian women on this project. Sheyda's creativity and poetic vision, as well as Tahmineh Monzavi's photographs, were key to the realisation of this project.

As a learning experience it was hard to realize that there is so much prejudice and racism against Iran, even the payments were stopped by the bank for having the word "Persian" in the concept of the project. By entering this contest we seek to give visibility to the richness and beauty of this culture that we have been taught to fear.

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