PiQI: Where Ferment Meets Artistry

Collaborators

Designer

James Parkinson

Deisgner

Bradley Poston

3D Modeller

Kieran Tait

Responsibilities

Design Direction, Brand Identity, Motion Design, Art Direction, Ui Design, Packaging

Software Used

Figma, After effects, Illustrator, indesign, Photoshop, Blender, Weavy

Problem

The brand’s bold colors and playful forms made the product feel like a soft drink, creating a disconnect when the tart, fermented flavor didn’t meet expectations. The challenge was to design a premium, craft-led identity that clearly communicates kefir’s handmade, organic nature and sets the right expectations.

Response

The identity builds a premium, authentic narrative rooted in kefir’s origins and craft. Real ingredients and botanicals replace abstract flavor cues to signal naturalness and transparency. Organic, blended forms—drawn from kefir’s multiplication process—reference fermentation, handcraft, and its living quality.

Response

Colour, Cultivated

Building on the brand direction, I developed a flexible colour palette that heroed real ingredients through earthy, organic tones. I grounded the system in a deep rouge inspired by dried fig and soil, paired with a grainy cream reflecting kefir’s natural cloudiness. From there, I introduced flavour-led accent colours that complement both the core palette and the drink itself, creating a refined, premium visual language that challenges the category’s reliance on loud, clashing colour.

Ingredients Become Identity

Extending the system, I evolved PiQi’s flavour language from abstract colour into illustration. I introduced botanical drawings to express craft and organic values, and developed ingredient-led visuals to hero flavour on-pack, creating a cohesive, premium system rooted in nature and storytelling.

Bottle details

The bottle redesign shifts the system into a more tactile, organic form. Smaller, wider, and shaped to reflect the brand’s handmade and natural values. I stripped back the label into a reductive, earthy system that steps away from the category’s colour-led noise, introducing subtle structural cues like a waved cut base and neck seals inspired by kefir’s natural process of multiplication.

Fermented Skincare

With a desire to shift the brand into a premium fermented wellness offering, I explored how the identity could flex beyond water kefir into skincare. I carried established visual cues from the core packaging system into this new category, extending illustration across soap wraps and secondary touchpoints. I also introduced refined details such as an engraved logo to reinforce a more premium, fluid, and cohesive brand expression.

Living Identity

We defined PiQi’s motion principles and how the brand behaves across digital touchpoints, translating identity into a fluid interactive system. A scalable design system and web templates ensured consistency and flexibility online. The rebrand drove rapid sales growth, stronger retail adoption, and opened premium channels including The Newt in Somerset, Whole Foods and Selfridges.

Organic Icons

Extending this system, I developed an iconography set that reflects the brand’s organic, handcrafted ethos. I used the counterform of the “Q” as a structural spacing guide to ensure consistency across the set. Drawing inspiration from kefir culture growth and metaball-like connections, I designed the icons to feel fluid, alive, and naturally cohesive across touchpoints.