Yaji is built on our shared love for good food. A meal with your family, hanging out with some friends, or maybe you'd like to go on a fun date.

With Yaji, you can try something new, have a fun challenge, try out special in-house recipes, or even just enjoy the Nigerian classics.

Yaji is here to make food fun... and spicy! 🔥

With this project, our goal was to build a brand identity that communicated Yaji's personality as your witty and mischievous friend, and put it's unique selling point (HEAT!) front and center.

A big part of Yaji's identity is its in-house spice blends.

Even the name "Yaji" means "Hot One" and is derived from the Northern part of Nigeria as the name of the unique spice blend that goes hand in hand with everyone's favorite street food, suya.

Using such a common name helps the brand score some familiarity points with its audience, almost as if they've known and loved it their entire life.

Building on that sense of familiarity and simplicity, Yaji's visual identity adopts a set of playful illustrations and GIFs, to support its logo.

Yaji sticks to its roots from Northern Nigeria.

The Northern side of the country is majorly a Muslim population. Where indigenes of their largest ethnic group, "The Hausas", are almost instinctively presumed to be Muslims.

This has resulted in a subconscious connection between the North and Islamic practices, including Arabic.

So the foundation for Yaji's logo is based on the structure of the Arabic alphabet.

Again, tying into that sense of familiarity.

The brand's colors are shades of black/dark grey and white, to reflect its simplicity, and red to reflect its heat.

Yaji's type system sticks to its friendly nature with a bold and curvy header, paired with a modern sans serif font to keep its typography fresh.