Brandient created the naming for Apidava®, Di Melio® and SuperBee®, while designing corporate identity and packaging for the Transylvanian honey producer, in a process that included the setting up of portfolio strategy and brand architecture.
Bucharest, September 2008
Apis Prod was established in 1992 as a small family business, starting with an apiary of 50 beehives belonging to Professor Victor Mates. The business grew and developed and, once the big retail chains made their entrance in Romania, it started to comply with all EU production and quality requirements. In 2005, Apis Prod associated with the Dutch partners Honey International B.V. and Trichilia, currently exporting 60 per cent of its entire production. In order to better convey its new features as well as the producer’s international exposure, Brandient created the name Apidava® by adding the old Dacian word “dava” to the lexical root “apis”, rendering the necessary differentiation and uniqueness on the market without alienating traditional partners. The Apidava corporate identity design, simplifying the bee symbol into the shape of the letter “a” (in Romanian “bee” is rendered by the word “albina”) was resourcefully approached in a modern manner by Cristian “Kit” Paul, Brandient Creative Partner. Brandient also created the name DiMelio® for the premium ecological acacia honey as well as the name SuperBee®. The product identity for DiMelio® brand makes a very good use of the specific features expected in a bio product: natural, authentic, clean, rustic, tradition and care during the entire process of making honey. Cristian Petre, Brandient Partner, designed the DiMelio identity, revitalized the traditional Brand Roua Florilor (Flowers’ Dew) and created the illustration for the bee-character SuperBee®. Further details are available on the corporate website www.apidava.com.
About Brandient
Brandient is an independent brand strategy and design consultancy founded in Bucharest in 2002 by Aneta Bogdan, Cristian Kit Paul and Mihai Bogdan — never part of a global network, working directly for the owners, CEOs and boards of its clients, with an all-senior team and category exclusivity. In over two decades the firm has created or rebuilt more than 300 brands, 279 of them published as case studies at brandient.com/work — from Romania’s national leaders to brands carried worldwide. The firm has been active in Southeast Asia for more than a decade. The work has earned 84 international awards and distinctions — most recently a Red Dot (2025) and two Graphis Golds (2026) — 64 documented mentions in international design books and publications, and, in 2015, a place among the inaugural inductees of the REBRAND Hall of Fame, alongside Interbrand and MetaDesign.
About Apidava
Apidava is a Transylvanian honey processor — a family business in Blaj working since 1992, processing some 2,200 tonnes a year and exporting about half of it, from Japan to the United States; Di Melio is its organic retail brand. Brandient rebuilt the brand and its portfolio architecture in 2007–2008: the Apidava case.