Garden's Herbal Tea

Garden's Herbal Tea

Client: Planning Department of Ishigaki City Tourism, Culture, and Sports Bureau, Greens Farm LLC.
Design Company: trope.
Creative Director: Shoma Terai, loftwork inc.
Art Director & Designer: Tatsurou Hirano
Country: Japan

"In Shiraho village of Ishigaki island, medicinal herbs were long picked from the garden and brewed as tea to regulate the body. "Garden's Herbal Tea" makes use of these pieces of wisdom from the Oji and Oba (Grandfather and Grandmother in Okinawa dialect) that live as one with the rich nature of the village. 

Four types of herbs — shell ginger, guava, cambra, minaga — are handpicked within the village and stuffed inside a package shaped after the old private houses of Ishigaki village. 

The colour of the roofs differ depending on the type of herb used, and will make you want to make a miniature of the Shiraho community by arranging them side by side. 

A certain warmth can also be felt as the name of the herbs on the four variations of tea packaging is written by the people of Shiraho village. 

It was originally sold at the Sunday market in the village, and later on picked up by Ishigaki Airport and the hotels in Shimauchi. The volume of production tripled, and created more employment in the village as well. 

The packaging was born through USIO Design Project, a redesign competition led by Ishigaki-shi in the Okinawa prefecture of Japan. The design was selected out of around 400 entries from designers worldwide, and ultimately commercialised. 

Ishigaki island — 2,000 km from Tokyo, is one of the Yaeyama islands, 400 km southwest from the main island of Okinawa. It is the southernmost tip of Japan and a subtropical city, attracting over a million people every year as it is popular for sightseeing. The USIO Design Project began in 2013 on this island through a three-year project as a way to use the power of design, rediscovering the charm of the city by bringing together "outside perspectives" and "those that are born, those that work, and those with the wisdom that is nurtured on the island."