Plus Kitchen

Agency: Karbon Ltd. & Garaj
Designers: Selen Ozuekren, Ece Deniz Gurkan, Emel Tufekcioglu & Garaj
Client: Plus Kitchen
Photo credits: Umut Töre
Illustrations: Evrim Guvenc, Emel Tufekcioglu
Country: Turkey

Plus Kitchen is a concept, designed for those who love to eat, yet pick what they eat carefully.
Concept is conceived by Garaj, a team passionate about cooking, with the expertise in the food industry. Identity was designed and developed by London based agency Caulder & Moore. Plus Kitchen logo simply gets together the messages love & thought implying the love for food and healthy eating habits.

Karbon has been involved in the project throughout the implementation of the concept in Istanbul, after many sessions of briefing and brain storming with Garaj team and C&M. Karbon and a creative team of Garaj collaboratively designed and developed the packaging ideas, interior communication strategy, tools and graphics. Garaj got involved in almost every step of the design process in order to communicate the aim of this concept accurately, that it’s a way of living, natural, simple and inspiring.

Packaging ideas were established on healthy and smart ideas, practical for white collar business people, who cannot spend too much time to prepare or have lunch, have healthy snacks or a refreshing eating experience.

Weck jars have been a starring actor for packaging salads, mezzes, desserts and even beverages. Textile based napkins are a part of the packaging, either to be used as a service mat or simply as a napkin. No plastic bags for take away is available, yet customers are encouraged to use the Furoshiki techniques to fold their napkins into bags. Customers are also encouraged to take the weck jars of their salads, soups or mezzes and are advised to reuse them for various different purposes. Mostly people prefer to use the empty jars to plant their own seeds –which can be purchased from the merchandise desk. They share the photos of their own DIY projects made with the jars, and these photos are published on the official social media accounts of Plus Kitchen.

Embracing a clean and spare visual language, packages include a simple tag to give the basic info about the product, name, content, nutritional info and expiration date which goes no further than a few days and handwritten on the store. Front side of the tag is designed to give the emotional brand messages, on the other hand, back side states the thoughtful aspect of the brand, containing the content information, nutritional values and else.

Woodwork collected from all around Turkey has been reused to make serving trays. Actually, all the furniture and wood blocks used for the floor have been made of reused wood.

Plus Kitchen keeps an online notebook of articles, inspiring ideas for natural living culture, artisan craft work, environmental responsibility on its blog www.plusmanual.com, collectively updated with Karbon.