#12 Heray

Country: Afghanistan - United states

Industry: Food and beverage

Story: In 2013, Mohammad Salehi sought asylum in the United States after his tenure as a translator for the U.S. Army made it unsafe for him to remain in Afghanistan. He founded Heray Spice because he wanted people “to know that there’s more to my country than war.” His company sources saffron from farming families in Herat Province, where Salehi grew up, and donates a portion of its profits to local educational charities.

Mission: social mission to help farmers with better wages while helping chefs with freshest and highest quality spices from Afghanistan.

Color: red like saffron. Beige like the land.

Inspiration: the afghan culture and patterns and the saffron flower.

Words: hope, heritage, beauty.

Strategy: A simple combination of 4 half circles creates an 8-petals flower inspired by the afghan traditional pattern. The circle symbolize life and eternity, while the flower represents joy and beauty which lie beyond the sorrows and cares of the human world.→ they together symbolize regeneration and the hope for humanity to take a more compassionate and aligned path. Saffron red is the primary color, with black to reinforce its cultural heritage, and gold to suggest the sandy land of Afghanistan.