First part:
I just turned the big bedroom of the house into a studio and bought the latest Mackintosh equipment, but I still didn’t have a suitable and serious job. I was in this situation when Mr. Shafiei, the CEO of Golestan, approached me and said that I came to you with the consent of Mr. Katuzian, because he They can no longer continue our work, they introduced you for Golestan tea works. In those days, I did not have an office and atelier and I worked at home. I turned the big bedroom of the house into a studio and the bathroom into a darkroom. At that time, half of the work was output with a computer and the rest could be done with positive film. In any case, I accepted the job with a lot of fear and doubt, and the first project or agenda was to change the packaging of Golestan Red Tea, which had a very important strategic position for the organization. I had invited Mr. Homan Mortazavi to cooperate. We entered the Golestan tea project with him and started to go, study, understand, hear and find the visual roots to find out what needs to be done. On the other hand, I used to go one or two days a week with the car and listen when they identified a supermarket or a store and started negotiating, because I knew nothing about sales, distribution, and the secrets of the market. This deep observation of the market made me discover very important points that played an important role in the design of the new identity. The most important thing was that during the war years, Iran’s tea market had actually left a color code in people’s minds by means of two types of tea that the tea organization provided to the people, i.e. domestic tea with green packaging and foreign tea with red packaging.
The second point was that in the stores, the tea packages were arranged behind the seller and they were several meters away from the buyer. I noticed that tea is better seen with a bright background and is more eye-catching at this distance, so it can distinguish itself in this way. The next point was the issue of the packaging structure. At that time, the technology of gluing the box at two points from the bottom was very limited in some centers, and this point helped the stability of the tea package a lot, otherwise, tea was among the products that sat down due to the passage of time, and the packages that were not properly constructed They don’t have it, they get out of the initial form after a while (it is called bellying), so we were also faced with this technical issue. The next issue was the word written in the logo of Golestan tea, we wanted to take the word tea out of the box and place Golestan as a new and emerging food brand. The next very important point in the design of the new packaging was the issue of the symbol that It is recommended to drink tea and Iranian tea.
After many studies, we realized that the elements of real photography were not attractive to the Iranian audience in that situation, in addition to the fact that the imported packages or Ahmed tea with a very interesting characteristic of British tea, made us unable to return to the traditional form of teapot, cup and saucer. . It was very important to decide on the symbol that Homan Mortazavi’s art was to sum up the narrow waist fan and created a very attractive element, and we were able to use a logo simplification and a closed forehead stylization, which means using the red color code throughout the body. And keeping that forehead clear, which should have been seen from afar, make a symbol of Iranian tea that represents excellent tea for all of us and a very beautiful symbol or archetype.
These changes were supported and carried out in our group for a long time by the CEO Mr. Yahya Shafiei and Ms. Siddiqa Garami, but it was not easy to satisfy and convince Hajj, dear sir, wherever they were informed that the sign was going to be changed from Golestan Chai to Golestan. They ordered that this should not happen. In any case, we requested them to spread the new packaging next to the current Golestan packages for about a year and a half, so that it gradually opens up its place so as not to harm the sales. But within a short period of about three months, we saw a big change and a lot of acceptance of the new package. And of course, this issue was accompanied by a series of related advertisements that were very appropriate and calculated. This support made a new positioning program for Golestan to start. At a time when many of the previous market competitors were not present, a very open and large stage was provided for this development in Golestan.
Part II:
After we made sure that the red packaging opened its place in the market, we went to TV ads, although we had many restrictions at that time. Advertisements were only allowed to the extent of animated captions and no human faces were allowed. The war years had greatly limited our expectations of good tea. I realized a very important point and since I found this insight, I started experimenting and collecting drinking utensils. I noticed that in every situation you are in, a kind of tea is brought to you, for example, when you go to your grandmother’s house, she may use the best silver tray and her old clips for you. And maybe at a friend’s house, you will be served with a modern cup or Pyrex glass, and when you go to the park or the mountains and plains, it will probably be a plastic cup. But whatever the circumstances, what we expect from drinking tea is an excellent tea! I started collecting over eighty interesting cups and mugs.
In those days, we rented an underground office, and I used to arrange the collection of cups and glasses on the office conference table. It was our wedding day and I remember well that there were eighty-four interesting glasses on the table and we were supposed to choose only eight or ten. For this reason, we wanted to give life to this idea when we realized that the company
