Updated the brand mark for "Highland Farms – Country Kitchen" logo, all new branding exploration, final design and development. Establishing standards for future brand and line extensions.

 

This project launched with eleven different pasta skus. Hired the food stylist and photographer, directed photography, complete package layout and delivered final docs to printer.

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The original Country Kitchen logo needed a refresh after almost 20 years. The old logo looked very dated stylistically. The new branding was developed around the distinctive gingham pattern, that helped draw attention when the boxes were stacked in the freezer creating a strong presence on shelf. The arched CK logo locked in the Highland Farms brand mark encapsulating it very neatly. The proportion and emphasis of the two brands to each other was intentionally 50% evenly split, each one emphasizing the other. The sequence of the two is interchangeable regardless how the sequence is read.

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The photography tells the story of meal preparation blurred in the backdrop to imply a kitchen setting, with a green burlap in the foreground nesting each of the plates. The photoshoot was done with real natural light filtering from the windows, to create the farm kitchen setting. The cloth was intentionally kept loose, with overlapping folds to create a casual and 'accidental' look to the overall scene. 

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The branding was intentionally developed without the use of variant colours. The gingham coupled with CK brand mark have a very strong presence from a distance with a predominant green pallete. Introducing variant colours would have detracted from the boldness of the green and risked cluttering; so in order to distinguish variants the photo compositions were changed each time. In this line different types of prep ingredients were changed and props. The overall effect is random and less formal, tying in nicely with the casual farm setting.

 

Another cue that helps distinguish variants is the bold treatment of the common name. This was intentionally emphasized to help consumers spot the differences easily. The typesetting varies dramatically between the skus along the top 1/4 of the principal panel. This was another way to play up the friendly farm aesthetic, while simplifying the hierarchy.

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Actual products were used fresh off the line, as the quality was superior and required no styled stand-ins.*  

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*This is important for both our clients, and ourselves as a studio. It is a matter of principal and integrity to show consumers trueness and accuracy whenever possible during photoshoots.