Bezi was based by Ilay Karateke – an Istanbul-raised, New York-based, ex-McKinsey guide turned cheesemaker – and Hasan Bahcivan – a Berkeley-trained engineer from certainly one of Turkey’s largest and most legacied cheesemaking households. Each grew up in giant households, with their lives punctuated by large family-style meals shared with associates and neighbours. Labneh, a Center Jap spreadable cheese, was ever current, alongside home made breads and seasonal produce.
As soon as they moved to New York, Karateke and Bahcivan longed for this sense of neighborhood across the desk, and for a style of house. So that they took it upon themselves to ‘convey Bezi, the labneh that labnehs higher than every other labneh on the market… wealthy in protein, low in tang, and able to get together’. The product is made in a Turkish manufacturing facility, close to the border with Greece, which might product as much as 300 tonnes of labneh a 12 months.
Bezi makes use of a proprietary recipe, which solely makes use of milk, cream, and tradition, in contrast to the labneh normally present in the USA, which is extra much like strained yogurt and has an quantity of tang that may flip some individuals off. Apparently, Bezi has 120% extra protein and 30% much less fats than its opponents, and an analogous quantity of protein to hummus however with 50% much less energy. These stats are conveyed by way of badge-like visible property on the sparse, but artfully messy homepage.
Crimson Antler undertook the brand and packaging design, leaning on wit to offer the product an enthralling character and drive curiosity amongst shoppers maybe unfamiliar with the cheese unfold. The copywriting is especially robust on-line the place speech bubbles interject extra formal data to ask ‘hummus who?’, ‘excuse me, the place’s the labneh?’ and to exclaim ‘reside, snicker, labneh’.
The identical tongue-in-cheek sense of humour is current within the graphic strategy, which pulls on the visible tropes of early desktop publishing equivalent to WordArt, clipart and – in fact – some funky 90s gradients. Every flavour is given its personal vibrant ‘taste-immersive’ colourway: mild blue for Plain, heat crimson for Crimson Pepper, and mustard yellow for All the things (which comes with New York-inspired bagel seasonings).
There are charming illustrations too, extra up to date in fashion. These function delicate and detailed shading and picture practical proportions, but parts of geometry keep away from any semblance of skeuomorphism. After which there’s the brand, tying the whole lot along with groovy curves and bizarre proportions that strike the appropriate stability of confidence and approachability.
Crimson Antler additionally art-directed the model imagery. Through the use of flash images coupled with a extremely saturated grade, not solely has the company metaphorically introduced out the feel and flavour of the labneh variants, however it has additionally inserted the product right into a enjoyable and party-loving context. Contemplating the revival of disposable cameras as the popular nightlife and Downtown-New-York-coded fashion, the images appear like they’ve been taken at an insider-y banquet.
As gourmand grocers and our palates are led to embrace the return of entire milk, Bezi labneh enters the market at simply the appropriate time, and Crimson Antler’s id feels equally ‘of-the-moment’, each retro and acutely trendy.
