Featured image for Student Spotlight: Tengu Instant Noodles

Student Spotlight: Tengu Instant Noodles

by First name Last name on 07/16/2009 | 2 Minute Read

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Designed by Rory Phillips, a student at Portland State University:

"The goal of this project was to create a brand and design it's identity and various deliverables to support the brand.

Instant noodles are super yummy, but they are also unhealthy because they are made with processed ingredients and fried. The idea was to market a brand of noodles that was made from organic whole grain and baked not fried, with high quality delicious gourmet flavors. Tengu is a type of mischievous Japanese demon, in this case a fox. The fox in Japaneses mythology is the guardian spirit of Daikoku the god of the harvest and kitchen. Fox shrines are found all over japan and people leave treats for the fox spirits for good fortune. After a lot of research Tengu became the name and symbol for the brand. The food of Chef Chen Kenichi was the inspiration for the different flavors of the noodles.

In order to differentiate the healthy delicious Tengu noodles from the processed junk noodles, the packaging is of a longer rectangular shape instead of the usual square. This was meant to evoke the idea of fine gourmet pastas.  The packaging was designed to be made from unbleached recycled materials to remind the consumer of the unprocessed nature of the product and to avoid the bright and cheap mass produced look of the junk brands. The message is this is a premium handcrafted item. The 'obi' or sash around the packaging designates the flavor this allows the company to easily add new seasonal flavors without changing and printing entirely new packages. The inside of the 'obi' has more information on the brand message; Tengu makes traditional Healthy, Delicious and Sustainable noodles everyone can enjoy."

Several more images after the jump. Be sure the check out the barcode he came up with, clever!

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