Snatch a Matcha
Design & Marketing for Bahrain's First Matcha Brand
Overview
Snatch a Matcha didn't just open Bahrain's first matcha spot in 2023. It created the matcha category in Bahrain. From that first location, it expanded fast, growing into multiple branches and becoming the benchmark for what matcha culture looks like here. From day one, I designed the visual world around an already-strong brand identity: campaigns for new drinks, social posts that get thousands of organic engagement, merch, spatial concepts. Working within one color and one font meant every decision had weight. The brand is bold and minimal at once, and that duality is what makes it work.
Deliverables:
Brand Oversight
Packaging & Collateral
Campaigns
Spatial & Environmental
Social Media Design
Photography by Ali Madan
Year
/
2023-Present
Client
/
Snatch a Matcha
Creative Range Within Constraint
Snatch a Matcha launches new drinks constantly, each one needing a completely different visual direction. The challenge was stretching the brand's identity far enough to accommodate radically different themes, from minimal to playful to bold, while keeping the core feeling Snatch a Matcha. The Summer Matcha campaign felt bright and refreshing. Ube Matcha's campaign felt anime, cutesy, chaotic with hearts and stars. Each campaign looked nothing like the last, but they all felt like they belonged to the same brand. The discipline of that constraint taught me that rigid visual systems don't kill creativity, they sharpen it.
Building Upon a Strong Brand
Each application is an opportunity to bring the brand forward and add dimension to Snatch a Matcha. Throughout the years, I designed merch, packaging, collateral that expanded and strengthened Snatch a Matcha's identity. The brand became bigger than one store, present in our customers' daily lives.
The Matcha Snatcher Campaign
For Snatch a Matcha's City Centre branch opening, we created the character the Matcha Snatcher: a creepy matcha thief in a green trench coat and sunglasses who'd cunningly stolen our supply to resell it across the mall. I designed the character and brought this campaign to life across posters, animations, and other visual applications. We built the whole campaign around this character. Wanted posters went up in the branches and videos hit social media. The concept was absurd and fun, the kind that makes people laugh and talk about it. The campaign was a hit because it felt true to who Snatch a Matcha is: bold, fun, and willing to be weird.
Spatial Design
Beyond the branches, I designed stands and pop-ups where the brand had to work in temporary spaces. I designed the City Centre branch as a full kiosk concept, which was later on handed to an interior design agency for proper implementation. At Roast Camp, the first pop-up for Snatch a Matcha, I created something bold and playful with the goal of standing out in the natural scene of the Budaiya Farmers Market. When that space became Roast Oasis in Year 3, I redesigned the stand with a new mystical mood using mirrors and green neon lights. The brand shifted with each environment but never lost its vibe.
What Moves Gen Z on Instagram
Throughout my work on Snatch a Matcha's social media, I figured out what makes people stop scrolling and actually engage. Carousel posts about matcha information, presented in ways that felt urgent, useful, shareable. The posts hit differently: 2k to 13k likes, reposts ranging from 130 to 600, organic shares as high as 8k. I learned what information to highlight, how to write the copy, how to design it, when to drop it. Everything had a purpose. Beyond carousels, I created animations, memes, reels, static posts for our audience of Gen Z matcha lovers. The consistency of the organic reach meant something was working. I learned what moves this specific audience on Instagram.
Social Media Design
I designed the graphics for Snatch a Matcha's social feed from day one. The posts were playful and intentional, matching the energy of the brand while staying visually consistent. The feed became as recognizable as the brand itself.
