Jaya Modi

Miombo Label

Miombo Sticker

Eucalyptus Sticker

Miombo Label

1/8

Huchi Huchi

(2020)

Born from a deep love (read *obsession* ) with honey, my client and friend Mutsa Marau launched her brand HUCHI HUCHI. She works with Zimbabwean honey farmers to bottle 100% pure, organic and yummy honey from Manicaland, Zimbabwe. HUCHI is Shona for honey, and HUCHI HUCHI is because it’s so good, you just have to say it twice!

When Mutsa approached me with her project, she was very clear with the design direction she wanted me to take - bold, colourful, approachable, accessible, homely, DIY, and unapologetically celebrating proud African blackness.

Keeping those very core values in mind, I went ahead with this DIY collage cut-up style that added an interactive and playful feel to the brand. I sampled Shwe Shwe cloths that I layered into the visuals as a link to African affiliation. Since the honey will be bottled and sold at small shops and local markets, I designed bottle front labels, stickers for the bottle cap tops and some information cards to distribute.

Presented here are the short labels for 3 types of honey profiles, each with their own characteristics, which I tried my best to translate visually through the assembled imagery and colour palette –

MIOMBO – Made from the nectar of local Msasa, Muzhanje, Mutondo and Muchakata flowers, it has an intense and medicinal flavour. It is also the most dominant honey from the range with a taste similar to molasses or burnt caramel, and has a smokey and tart aftertaste. Its colour is an almost mahogany-like deep brown, and it smells like wood bark.

EUCALYPTUS – With an inviting ale-like smell, this honey is light, fruity and zesty with a citrusy aftertaste. It looks like liquid gold when bottled with its coppery, amber hues mixed in with an overall caramel like colour. A very friendly and fun profile, overall.

WILDFLOWER - Intriguingly reddish in colour, the wildflower honey is made from whichever locally available flowers the bees decide to pollinate. Tasting uncannily like maple syrup, the honey has wooden undertones that compliment its fruity, floral and rich aroma.