New category. New tastes
While plant-based and free-from foods are becoming mainstream in the West, these concepts have had a slow start in Japan. To bring people around the table without fear of allergens, Japanese company Gâteaux de Voyage wanted to launch a new sweets brand using only plant-derived / organic ingredients to appeal to broadening tastes.

Creating a globally local brand
The challenge of the project was twofold: How do you educate just what plant-based means, while make it palatable for local Japanese tastes? And how do you create a brand that’s made in Japan, named in Spanish (Las Olas), but selling French-style pastries? To solve these, we aimed to create a brand that’s “globally local” from the start, conveying the diverse tastes of a globetrotting audience.

Made in Japan, for the world
Based on the Japanese Qinghai wave, the logo hybridises the “L” and “O” of Las Olas into a leaf and ocean symbol. Variants are expressed via patterns remixing Spanish and Japanese tiles, while being inspired by the shape and colours of the pastries themselves. To reflect the brand’s sustainable ethos, we also designed the box to be printed with vegetable ink. The result? A brand that’s globally East-meets-West, yet desirable everywhere.