Chinese tea · paisley wings, gold line
The tea becomes the body of the emblem
Thirty-four Chinese teas set inside a symmetrical butterfly of paisley engraving, gold line on oxblood, with the leaf itself where the body should be.
Chinese tea · paisley wings, gold line
Thirty-four Chinese teas set inside a symmetrical butterfly of paisley engraving, gold line on oxblood, with the leaf itself where the body should be.
7 teas · 5 categories
Symmetry is the whole structure: two identical wings, an axis down the middle, and the product placed exactly on that axis so it cannot be read as decoration. The wings are filled with paisley because engraved pattern at that density behaves like texture rather than image, and texture is the one thing that can surround a photograph without arguing with it. Gold line on a dark ground is the only palette, so the leaf supplies the second colour on its own — rust, bronze, gold tip. Placing the tea where a body belongs makes the emblem depend on the product; take the leaf out and the mark is unfinished. Chinese tea suits an emblem this formal because much of it is already ceremonial in shape — pressed discs, tight balls, sorted buds — and it sits on an axis without being arranged. Type is engraved serif caps, arched above and repeated below, and it says only the name.