Chang Ba: Cookbook & Merchandise Design

A cookbook and merchandise project for Chang Ba (ช้างบ้า), the cult Israeli Thai restaurant chain whose name means "Crazy Elephant." The cookbook is built around the tagline "Where There is Food, There is Love," bringing together the full story of Chang Ba: from its founding by Eitan Lipschitz and Lior Golan in downtown Haifa in 2015, through its expansion to Yokneam and Kiryat, to the philosophy and recipes of Thai street food that define every dish. Warm amber and deep charcoal tones, cinematic food photography, Thai script typography, and hand-stencil murals give the book a design language as alive as the restaurants themselves. The project then extends to apparel: a black t-shirt with the elephant mascot inside a glowing pink circle, yellow lightning bolts, and psychedelic mushroom motifs on the front, the rallying cry "JUST MAKE IT CRAZY" on the back, and a bilingual logo; plus a structured snapback and a reversible bucket hat, both embroidered with the bold pink-and-yellow wordmark and a white line-art elephant.

The Challenge

After nearly a decade of growth and a devoted following across northern Israel, Chang Ba had no cookbook capturing its recipes and the story behind them. The restaurants had built their reputation dish by dish, but there was no single object that tied together the founders' journey, the Thai culinary heritage, and the spirit of the food. The book had to work as a recipe collection, a personal memoir, and a coffee-table piece, all executed in Hebrew with deep respect for Thai visual culture. The merchandise came with its own challenge: the restaurant's energy lived only inside its walls, and the goal was to design pieces fans would actually want to wear, carrying the chaotic, joyful spirit of "Crazy Elephant" without feeling like a generic souvenir.