Manaaki

Creative Agency: Coats Design
Creative Direction: Matt Grantham
Copywriting: Sigrun Steinhagen
Production: Daniel Legget
Project Type: Produced, Commercial Work
Client: Omaka Marae
Location: Blenhiem, New Zealand
Packaging Contents: Condiments and Preserves
Packaging Substrate / Materials: Glass Jars

Manaaki is a range of handmade preserves and condiments using traditional Māori ingredients, targeted at the modern foodie looking for a new eating experience. The word Manaaki stands for hospitality, showing care and respect for others.

Developed as a social enterprise by Omaka Marae, Manaaki is part of a long term business strategy to create opportunities for the wider marae family. By learning the skills needed to grow, harvest, produce, market and sell, they aim to remain self sustaining and self determining. Coats were engaged by the management team of the Marae to develop a brand and packaging design that would combine their traditional and progressive values, connecting the Manaaki story with a modern audience.

The brand logo takes its cues from the colour and texture of the ornate, red wooden carved bargeboards of the meeting house (wharenui).

The bold visual device derives from the crosses of the woven tukutuku panels that feature on the interior walls of the meeting house. These layer with a symbolic ‘M’ shape which, in Māori, denotes unity and a coming together, for a deeper cultural meaning. The device has the flexibility to be amended in size, shape and colour, and adapt to different products and formats for any future developments.

Integral to the core idea of Manaaki are the ‘Aunties’. These are the women of the marae, going back generations, who have grown, harvested and made the recipes according to traditional methods for their families. The strapline ‘Made by the Aunties’ champions their importance to the brand. Coats saw the opportunity to add further provenance by using one of the Aunties’ handwriting for all variant typography, adding that extra handmade touch.