“Mahyawah” is a crushed anchovy sauce, popular among the people of Persia and some Arab countries, known to be the food of the lower class people for its simplicity and low cost, mostly sold in traditional bakeries and home businesses. The original name of the product sauce is traditionally known as "Mahyawah", it has been around in the Middle Eastern culture for a long time without any serious or mentionable attempts to brand the product as a retail product, the exercise explores the potentials and possibilities of packaging this product as a delicacy by taking a premium design approach that enhances the overall perception of the sauce to attain a wider range of giving the look of luxury that would appeal to the higher end audience, steering away from the stereotype of this product.
The brand name “Khudmoni” represents the name of the ethnic group that this sauce was invented by from the 1800s, one of the main sub-groups of this ethnic group are the Janahi’s, They have a unique recipe for making this sauce, which is used to indicate the flavorand recipe for this type of Mahyawa as it is the most common type of Mahyawah.
Traditionally homemade Mahyawa sauce is packed in recycled bottles of other products,
With no branded labels nor custom packaging, to maintain the low cost and accessibility to the product.
The design of this Packaging is a concept that explores the possible look that this popular product would need in order to make it on the super market shelves where it should be sold and to stand out from the common level with more a professional look to raise the bar for the whole category and the overall retail behavior of the Mahyawa product market.
This concept design project is intended to show and educate small businesses and home businesses about the power that design has in transforming public perception of a product
and how it can help it reach its potential, Mahyawa was the perfect subject considering
the history of the product and the lack of retail presence.
