Afar is not your ordinary protein bar. They specialize in savory, crispy bars inspired by flavors from around the world. A perfect snack for health-conscious, adventurous eaters. After a year in business, Afar was preparing to scale up from a ghost kitchen to a co-packer and was looking to level up and refine Afar’s branding and packaging.

BRANDING REFRESH

Our goal was to infuse the brand with energy, excitement and wanderlust. The original branding fell somewhere between formal and playful and the hot air balloon felt like an afterthought. We needed a graphic that could be used on a standalone basis.

While we explored other concepts that implied travel, the hot air balloon ultimately had the best narrative – it conveyed travel in an abstract, fun and adventurous way. The new logo has a wave pattern, where the lines are reminiscent of a topography map or can be interpreted as the wind swirling around the hot air balloon. The new logotype is a softer, rounded serif on a slight arc, as if it were sitting on the horizon. We chose a color palette that ties back to the spices and flavors in the savory bars.

PACKAGING REFRESH

There was a lot to love about the original packaging, but there was some confusion from shoppers around understanding the product. It felt formal and precious, almost like a chocolate bar, and implied it was for special occasions instead of an every day snack to enjoy. To solve this, we added a photo of the protein bar at the bottom and switched from a flat pouch to a wrapper style roll-stock. We updated the branding and typography for an easier read, while still featuring the illustrations as the hero of the packaging.

WEBSITE REFRESH

We created a fully custom Shopify site with the new brand system for a seamless and cohesive experience. The site leads with graphics and images to drive engagement, provide easy to digest content and user-friendly navigation.

"Lisa Mishima is a rockstar of a brand designer. She delivers top-tier work at the level of an expensive design agency - but at a price point far more friendly to earlier stage brands.

We worked with Lisa to give our protein bar brand, Afar Foods, a full brand refresh, including redesigns of our brand identity, bar wrappers, boxes, 3D product renderings, and website. She knocked all the designs out of the park. In addition to meeting our criteria, she added extra levels of flair and polish that made them standout - and we've received glowing feedback from customers as a result!

In addition to her talent, Lisa is a pleasure to work with. Not only is she friendly and energetic, she's highly communicative, proactively keeping us informed on progress with projects. She always met our timelines for deliverables, often with extra time to spare. We definitely plan on working with Lisa again for future design projects."

— Gene Zhu, Founder of Afar Foods

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