‘Client’ experience on TV show inspires Mr Singh’s co-founder to launch branding consultancy

Inspired by his experience on the show as a client of Pearlfisher, which branded and packaged his Mr Singh’s chilli sauce, Singh Sahota has set up Sixty Percent Banana with partner Vikas Shah.

Sixty Percent Banana is working on its first two projects, including designing a website for an unnamed start-up Indian lettings company and creating the branding for a US- and Jamaica-based music festival and tour organiser.

In the BBC series, which airedin May, Singh Sahota and his family worked with Pearlfisher on branding and packaging for their home-made chilli sauce, which the family produce at their home in east London.

Singh Sahota says, ’We learned so much from Pearlfisher and the show about what branding means, so the idea to set up a consultancy came to life a couple of months after that.’

Singh Sahota’s friend and business partner Shah ran his own design consultancy, Ultima Group, for 14 years until 2000.

The new consultancy is currently finalising its own branding, created by Shah. Its name is inspired by the fact that human beings share 60 per cent of their DNA with bananas.

Describing themselves as ’creative guerrillas’, Singh Sahota says, ’Our main focus is to have fun – if we think that a job is boring, we won’t do it.’

Sixty Percent Banana will aim to offer clients multidisciplinary design and business services, including brand strategy, digital and graphic design, and creative business management advice.

’The idea is that we can commercially implement creative ideas, because we understand the importance of achieving a fine balance between
The group is currently drawing on a pool of about six freelancers in London and Manchester, including Mani Sidhu, who created the Mr Singh’s website.

Singh Sahota hopes to find London premises for the group by the end of the year.

The consultancy’s branding and its website, which is being designed by Sidhu, will launch at the end of July.

Sixty Percent Banana’s first project will launch in the next two months.