In Mubariz Yusifzade’s self-intiated identity for Pastane Bakery, the typography puffs up like dough

When Baku-based designer Mubariz Yusifzade began working on a self-initiated project for the identity of a fictitious bakery called Pastane, an idea was already brewing in his mind. He wanted the identity to break away from traditional tropes of bakery branding – that use illustrations and hand-drawn elements – and create something that truly stood out. The answer, as it turns out, lied in typography. “I chose a simple yet impactful concept – bread that rises as it bakes, with typography that evolves in a similar way. Just as some bakery products stay in the oven for varying durations, resulting in different textures, I applied this idea to typography. This led to the creation of ‘underdone’ and ‘well-done’ fonts, representing different stages of baking,” Yusifzade tells us. Typography, as Yusifzade points out, is one of the most direct and potent tools in visual communication. It can carry stories within itself, connect with audiences and convey a brand’s value through form and structure. “By choosing a typographic approach, I was able to visually embody the brand’s concept of transformation and growth – the same way dough rises and expands in the oven,” he says. This was a clever idea for a bakery – when seen together with videos of dough balls puffing up and rising, the typography mimics its movement, starting from a thin weight and then swelling to a point where letters bleed into each other, much like when dough balls expand and merge with each other when placed on a tray and baked. Here, “the typography doesn’t merely complement the brand’s visuals; it is the visual,” says Yusifzade. “Every design element, from the logo to packaging, carries this typographic style, creating a strong and unified brand identity.”