Lagusta's Luscious
Lagusta Yearwood may be our client but she's also our... secret obsession! Whether one of us is opening yet another chocolate bar in the office to share or marveling at her UNREAL cookbook or geeking out at seeing product we designed in Los Angeles or feeling humbled / inspired / teary / fired up over her personal Instagram posts, we would officially follow Lagusta ANYWHERE. In our most fierce and fantastic vintage lewks. With all our dogs, and kids, and font files, and weary but can't-stop-won't-stop hearts.
BARKS & BARS & "BAGVELOPES," OH MY
When we first set out to re-work Lagusta's packaging line, we had to also work closely with the team to better understand things like the sheer magnificent SIZE of her custom chocolate barks, the unique + ever-changing size of her delectable chocolate bars, and then things like pieces and bites and chocolate "scramble." Reminder that great design is often deeply informed by form, function and in this case, melt-potential, eco-friendly options and sustainable inks too.
COLOR EXERCISE
Ahhhh the original Lagusta logo! A classic old school cameo-style silhouette... with a tiny hidden knife. See that? Lagusta came to slay (at life! Never animals!) and she wanted new colors to keep things fresh. And wow is it SO fun to work with a client who loves Wes Anderson, Saved By the Bell and 80s/90s hyper vibrancy as much as we do! We don't ALWAYS go this route with color for this brand, but we do get to play.
FROM THE DESK OF A TRUE ARTIST
One of the most beautiful aspects of the Lagusta packaging is that they ALL feature Lagusta's actual handwriting. She has literally hand-painted the name of every single item they make (hundreds of items y'all!), sent photos or scans to us, and we've either vectorized or done additional scanning to capture and utilize the brilliant colors she chooses. We talk a lot about collaboration here at Rabe and Birch... and this might be the tastiest example we've got.
"We’ve been working with the Rabe + Birch team since 2019 to organize our unwieldy and sprawling graphic design + packaging systems. We dumped a giant project in their laps and they didn’t even blink. The Rabe team has shown so much kindness, respect, and care in their interactions, and the design has been so beautiful and more functional than ever. We’ve also been able to implement a revamped method for organizing our systems that has streamlined our internal workflow thanks to their organized example. They’re a joy to work with."
Lagusta Yearwood
Restless Rabble-Rousing Chef-Turned-Chocolatier and Founder of Lagusta's Luscious