A Rare Food Export

In the plant-based space, many companies anchor themselves to meat by positioning as alternatives. It creates a mental trap. Telling people not to think about meat only makes them think about meat. Where as seitan, tofu, and tempeh have carved out their own territory. People who use them daily do not think about meat when they eat them.

This led us to think more broadly about the entire dilemma of how we articulate plant-based food and what naming actually does for the category. Another insight emerged. There is not a single Finnish food known internationally. In Sweden, maybe something. In Germany, nothing. Further away, the same pattern continues.

So we flipped the whole situation around. We took a classic Finnish meat-based product, the lihapiirakka (met pie), and hijacked it. We veganized it and called it Finnish Pie. To make it tangible and to practice what we were preaching, we went all in.

With our chef, Iikka Johansson, we developed a version that became the most delicious Finnish pie anyone had ever tasted. Then we worked with Jan Rudkiewicz from Werklig and with type designer Teo Tuominen to build a complete identity and a custom typeface called Finnish Pie. The project has now expanded into a musical act carrying the same name.

This sits somewhere between branding work and exploratory art project. It started as an exercise, but became a demonstration of how naming, identity, and form can change the energy around an idea. When a concept becomes tangible, it becomes real.

In many fields, especially technical or engineering-heavy ones, these questions are overlooked. Yet we are extremely careful when naming cars, perfumes, alcoholic beverages, fashion items, or foods. We care what they are called and how they look.

The same attention should be given to engineering-driven products and industrial ideas. Naming, form, and meaning belong together. The less meaning we give something, the less tangible it becomes. The more meaning we give it, the better it will perform.