As the Creative Lead at Miso Tasty, I played a pivotal role within the marketing team to craft and refine the very essence of our brand. We meticulously sculpted the distinctive look and feel that set us apart from the competition, breathing life into our vision through exceptional design and strategic marketing.
Among my notable contributions, I was instrumental in the development of our taglines, "Miso makes it Tasty" and 'Add a Spoon & See!"- captivating phrases engineered to resonate with the time-starved home cook who craves bold flavors and the joy of cooking but finds themselves constrained by the clock.
Our overarching objective was twofold: to position our brand not just as a premium Japanese culinary secret but also as an indispensable kitchen companion across the United Kingdom, elevating the taste profile of an array of recipes, transcending the boundaries of traditional Japanese cuisine.
Within my role, I managed a diverse array of responsibilities, including:
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Charting the course for Miso Tasty's creative direction.
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Pioneering the art direction for our retail packaging design.
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Designing solutions for our food service packaging and marketing collateral.
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Masterminding the user experience (UX) design for our digital home, misotasty.com.
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Crafting the user interface (UI) design for the same platform.
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Steering the ship of website development and its ongoing management.
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Orchestrating the digital marketing strategy for our beloved brand.
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Spearheading content creation initiatives that resonated with our audience.
Miso Tasty is a miso brand with a range of award winning miso paste, miso soup kits, noodle kits and Japanese cooking sauces. They are available in major supermarkets across the UK, with select products available in Austria and Australia.
The brand, along with their sister brand Tofu Tasty, is headed by award winning cookbook author and frequent Sunday Brunch guest chef, Bonnie Chung.
Packaging & Labels
To harmonize with our overarching brand strategy and carve out a distinctive niche in the competitive landscape, a redesign of the front packaging for our esteemed Miso paste jars emerged as a necessity.
This endeavour took on heightened significance for our 100g Miso jar, as it became evident that its previous design bore a striking resemblance to a rival product from a different brand.
As the Creative Lead, I took the helm in steering the art direction for this transformational initiative, collaborating closely with the esteemed design agency, Hunt Hanson.
The resultant labels reflect a more brand-centric approach, affording ample space for our iconic logo, conveying messages with enhanced clarity and elegance, and adopting a gentler, more inviting tone—all while preserving the brand's inherent premium, authentic, and whimsical character. These rejuvenated labels are thoughtfully complemented by a set of fresh lids, showcasing the distinctive pattern that has come to symbolize our brand.
As for the challenge presented by the smaller Miso jar, we undertook a radical redesign, transforming it into a pint-sized sibling that mirrors its larger counterpart. This reinvented 110g jar now harmoniously accommodates the brand's new signature lids, perfectly aligning with our revitalised brand identity.
New Signature Lids
By elevating an existing pattern, previously a discreet element incorporated only within the tamper seal of the former miso paste jar labels, I transformed it into an iconic signature pattern for our brand. This change involved relocating the pattern to grace the metallic lids of our jars, imparting instant recognition to Miso Tasty on supermarket shelves, within the pages of cookbooks, and in households across the country.
This pattern has been adapted across the wholesale and food service range and will eventually feature on the rest of the retail products as well such as future releases.
New 3D Visuals
To streamline our workflow, I devised a solution by transforming our product range into 3D objects. This innovation enables us to swiftly experiment with fresh ideas, a task that previously necessitated outsourcing. Additionally, this approach has liberated our budget constraints, as it permits us to repurpose earlier photography that might have otherwise been discarded due to the outdated packaging depicted in the visuals.
Photography by Uyen Luu
Content Creation for Social Media
To complement the relaunch of our meal kits featuring a 'New Improved Recipe,' I collaborated with the renowned photographer and cookbook author, Uyen Luu, to create simple animations for our Ramen Noodle Kit and Katsu Curry Kit to accompany the new images. This initiative was unveiled in 2021 during the lockdown period when home cooking was on the rise.
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The video on the right is a simple motion graphic I animated as part of our brand awareness campaign for Facebook Ads. Our objective was to swiftly capture our customers' attention, conveying the exciting news of our availability at Sainsbury's, along with the introduction of our new lid design. This simple yet effective motion graphic seamlessly weaves together previously captured imagery with the sleek transitions provided by our innovative lid design.
On the far right is an example of the social media content I curated for our Instagram account to announce the release of our first tofu product. We worked with with Jeremy Pang and his team at Curious Crab to create a series of videos and we enlisted the talented Uyen Luu for the lifestyle photography.
Photography by Uyen Luu
The Website
My approach to Miso Tasty's previous website was centered around introducing Miso Tasty as a brand that simplified the art of crafting authentic Japanese cuisine at home – a delightful and accessible culinary adventure through our meal kits and premium ingredients. However, with the implementation of our new brand strategy, the revamped website needed to harmonize seamlessly with the key messages 'Miso makes it Tasty' and 'Add a Spoon & See!'. To align with this shift, we made the strategic decision to retire our meal kits and place a laser focus on our pure miso pastes.
We recognized that the website now had to pivot towards an educational tone, authoritative yet never preachy, echoing our commitment to demystify the world of miso. It's often been said that the surest way to anyone's heart is through their stomach, and accordingly, our website brims with delectable food imagery and an array of mouthwatering recipes.
For the platform, I opted for Squarespace, drawn to its seamless integration of SEO features, blogging capabilities, and e-commerce functionalities. Its user-friendly interface makes it accessible even to individuals with limited web experience, facilitating effortless updates and maintenance.
Our Key Objectives:
• To create an easy to use website to introduce and showcase the brand's range of products.
• To introduce the idea that "Miso makes it Tasty" and direct visitors through the website to learn about miso leading them to a recipe for or the online shop.
• Include an e-commerce section, this will be a secondary focus with a limited quantity of items on offer. Alternative retail points should be available and clearly accessible.
Project Duration: Approximately 9 weeks from planning through to launch.
My Role:
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Art Direction
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Designer
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UX & UI
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Content Management
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SEO
Site Map
Wireframes
Marketing & Design
Ocado Web Banners
Tofu Tasty Tea Towel
To celebrate the launch of Bonnie Chung's second cookbook, 'Tofu Tasty: Imaginative Tofu Recipes for Every Day', I produced a tea towel design in collaboration with the talented illustrator Alex Barrow. This design artfully illustrates the diverse spectrum of tofu varieties and the extensive array of delectable dishes they can conjure, all complemented by an array of accompanying ingredients.
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Art Direction
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Designer
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Project & Production Management
Building on the success of the Tofu Tasty cookbook release and the surging demand for tofu, we embarked on a journey to introduce an entirely new brand bearing the same name. Within this ambitious venture, I took on a central role, tasked with the creation of the new website for the Tofu Tasty brand and the strategic development of packaging design for an enticing new product. These initiatives were artfully synchronised to align seamlessly with our brand's expansive growth.
