Putting a face to a name to a label

The client

Manju’s is a family-run vegetarian restaurant in Brighton, focusing on Gujarati food.

The brief

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the family team behind Manju’s approached us to design the labels for their first retail range of chutneys. They had temporarily closed the restaurant and were looking to explore a new sales channel for the brand.

What we delivered

When we heard the story behind the brand, it was clear we had to hero Manju herself. Now in her 80s, she is the family matriarch and the woman behind the recipes and the restaurant business.

Inspired by personality-branding such as Paul Newman, Mrs Ellwood and Loyd Grossman, we created a design featuring custom-shot imagery of Manju.

During the course of our development work, we came across some Gujarati-inspired illustrations by Manju’s granddaughter. This provided a complementary backdrop to the photography, adding another dimension to the labels.

Applying the colour palette from the popular restaurant ensured the chutneys felt part of a growing brand family. It also helped underpin their authenticity.

Through the copy, we helped draw out the key parts of Manju’s story and position these as premium, authentic Gujarati chutneys, differentiated from the plethora of Indian chutneys and pickles on the market.

What the client said

“Manju’s is our family restaurant, dedicated to our mother, Manju Patel, who, at the age of 80, achieved the lifelong dream of opening a restaurant.