A PepsiCo Design & Innovation venture created from the ground up, OJAS STUDIO is a food and lifestyle brand created to spread the love and wonder of Ayurveda. Ayurveda is yoga’s sister science, a healing system that encapsulates a way to eat and live that prevents injury and disease. Within Ayurveda, we each carry an individual blueprint for optimum health, and are able to learn from this blueprint what is best suited for our individual body-mind type, or “dosha.”

In Ayurveda, the mind and body are inextricably connected. Ayurveda is a holistic lifestyle that uses daily practices to manage the three Ayurvedic doshas—Pitta, Vata, and Kapha—which, according to the ancient Ayurvedic texts, are the main energies that govern us and the natural world. In Ayurveda, understanding your blueprint is key.

The personal Ayurvedic experiences of Indra Nooyi, PepsiCo’s former CEO, along with other global leaders who were raised with the heritage of Ayurveda, led to a desire to help make Ayurveda more approachable to a broader audience. These leaders sought out a group of health and wellness devotees within PepsiCo to help bring OJAS STUDIO to life.

In developing OJAS STUDIO, we also collaborated with members of the Ayurvedic community to gain a deeper understanding of how to re-imagine Ayurveda and infuse its traditions into our products. OJAS STUDIO was made possible with the help of the experts at Kripalu School of Ayurveda, and dedicated yoga enthusiasts who shar their wisdom and passion for Ayurveda.

The design challenge was to draw from ancient Ayurvedic wisdom and create an approachable brand that is accessible for modern times. We created OJAS STUDIO to speak to busy yoga and Ayurveda practitioners—the modern yogi—looking for something to help them bridge their hectic schedules with their health and wellness goals. OJAS STUDIO is available both in a multi-serve bag, and a portable, single-serve format that was crucial to best serve our target consumer. OJAS STUDIO date and grain bites recipes are inspired by each dosha, and contain no artificial sweeteners.

Our Design and Innovation Team worked hand-in-hand with the PepsiCo nutrition team as well as R&D and was involved in every aspect of crafting each recipe, tasting and refining until each of the recipes were just right. The three flavors available are: Cardamom, Cinnamon & Walnut (Vata), Coconut, Fig & Orange Peel (Pitta), Ginger, Cinnamon & Chia (Kapha). We heroed the OJAS STUDIO ingredients on our packaging and created color coding and icon systems that aim to simplify which recipes might be best suited for each dosha.

The visuals displayed on the OJAS STUDIO packing celebrate the carefully chosen ingredients inside. On pack, Vata is represented by a warm, grounding dosha-balancing red, Pitta by a soothing, dosha-pacifying purple, and Kapha by an earthy, invigorating and dosha-balancing yellow tone. The OJAS STUDIO logo communicates the merging of east-meets-west and brings ancient wisdom into modern times. The clean and modern stacked type reiterates the ideal of balance found within Ayurveda. The flourishes on the edges of the J and A are an homage to letter forms of Sanskrit. Positioned on a crisp, white background, the design evokes the clean label product inside. The patterned band across the top of the package is a nod to Ayurvedic heritage. From start to finish, we worked to develop a system that felt approachable and modern, while honoring its ancient roots.

To create the OJAS STUDIO brand assets, the team cast, shot, directed and produced inspiring, brand authentic assets with support from independent artists and the PepsiCo Creator’s League. For the brand video and still lifestyle shots, we thoughtfully art-directed a shoot at three locations and cast each featured model to embody the energy and aesthetic of each dosha.

These design principles also paved the way for the look and feel of the OJAS STUDIO website. We crafted a quiz designed to help individuals learn more about their personal make up (dosha) that mirrors the look and feel of our brand throughout its different touch points. The quiz is designed to help customers make a conscious decision over what recipes might be best suited for them, leading them to a personalized snack.

Ultimately, as a brand, OJAS STUDIO offers a way to pause and infuse a moment of Ayurvedic inspiration into the unavoidable reality of busy, modern lives. When savored with a pause, deep breath, and a smile, these date and grain bites remind consumers to be conscious of when, what, and how they put food into their bodies.