Month: August 2017

The Cookie Jar

Posted on by YBmMqGwLx0

The Cookie Jar is a well-established bakery situated in the beautiful surroundings of the Mourne Mountains. Since 1965 The Cookie Jar have been baking some of the country’s best known breads and sweet treats, from Wheaten bread to Soda bread, Fruit Bannock and beyond they have built on their Grandmothers fame across Northern Ireland and kept true to her original recipes. To this day owner James has kept every recipe his grandmother created the same, as they were in the 60’s – a testament to the quality of the products. From their premises in Newcastle, County Down The Cookie Jar noticed that there was high demand for their traditional Irish baking outside of the bakery shop and across the world. Ex-pats living in Australia, America and Europe seek the traditional baked taste of home and The Cookie Jar was happy to help. The power to re-create your favourite Wheaten, Soda, Scones and much more from your home, no matter where you are in the globe spawned the idea of ‘Bake your own’ – The Cookie Jar’s solution, in the form of ingredient packages. The ingredients simply need water and oil added in order to re-create the beautiful taste of home, still with James’ Grandmothers original recipe. With increased interest and success of selling and shipping the ‘Bake your own’ model required a brand identity as well as some packaging design.

In creating the brand identity we needed a narrative for the brand that immediately told the brand story before a logo or package is seen. How do we sum up a traditional bakery that is famous for their product in Newcastle, Co. Down – Mourne and Bread. Mourne and Bread is the lead narrative that sets the foundation for the brand identity and tone of voice. Mourne and Bread addresses the surroundings in which the bread is created and recognises the tradition and nod to being ‘born and bred’ in the Mournes.

Now that we have the narrative the identity would soon follow. We created a brand mark that remembers the old identity through a revised wheat icon as well as bringing the texture of the work surfaces in the bakery to the type design. The textured type instantly tells the tale of the bakery and once paired with the new, improved colour palette the entire mark communicates as a fresh, contemporary identity. We created both stacked and horizontal logotypes for versatility across the branding both in print, signage and online.

Marketing and promotion for The Cookie Jar allowed us to build upon the narrative, copy and art direction – from ‘Mourne and Bread’ to ‘up here it’s bread into us’ and gorgeous, epic shots of the Mournes and dramatic bread shots the branding, when pieced together is very powerful.

Following the design and marriage of all branding elements we were able to focus on how the ‘Bake your own’ packaging would appear. Taking into account the direction of marketing material and storytelling across the brand we wanted this to continue. Utilising the ‘Bake your own’ theme we designed the packaging to reflect the homemade feel and resonate with the ‘crafty’ audience who would be baking the breads and mixes. We introduced scenic Mourne illustrations and photography to the package design as well as a contemporary ‘way-finding’ icon set to be used as the product list develops.

We not only got to develop a fantastic brand identity and strategy but we also had the pleasure of creating some of the delicious breads and scones in the studio. The ingredient bags make it so easy and believe me the results are delicious – personally I had the Wheaten Bread and Scones and both are incredible, highly recommend you try out The Cookie Jar.

 

 

Jane McClenaghan

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Jane McClenaghan owner of Vital Nutrition – Northern Irelands leading nutrition and healthy lifestyle brand approached Kaizen Brand Evolution to create an identity for herself in preparation for Jane’s evolution as a leading, national healthy lifestyle consultant. Jane has featured as part of Centra’s most recent influencer campaign and has appeared on BBC and numerous Food events across the province. Jane’s ambition is to be the figurehead for healthy living and nutrition, increasing her media coverage and crafting her ‘influencer’ brand presence.

The first step in the creative process was to fully understand the industry landscape that Jane aims to position herself as a stand-alone influencer. We researched and developed clear brand narratives based on Jane’s ambition and potential competitors in the healthy living/eating arena. Learning what is working and not necessarily working for some of the top brands was extremely important in the creation of Jane’s brand. As well as retaining the brand name ‘Jane McClenaghan’ we wanted to explore further options for her as a business, much like the way some influencers use nick names or brand names to trade under. Names such as Zoella, I Quit Sugar and Little Green Spoon have achieved major success from this approach. As one branding option we renamed Jane and presented her with “Nutrijane” as a potential brand direction – using this naming we seen potential for a clever brand strategy which would position her brand alongside the ‘quirky’ engaging names out there. In the end we stuck with Jane McClenaghan and plan to use Nutrijane throughout the brand emails and possible URL for her new website – so no idea un-used.

We designed a contemporary brand system for Jane McClenaghan to use across all of her marketing material both on and offline. We introduced a leaf to the word mark using negative space in the A to achieve instant brand recognition – summing up Jane’s offering and business objectives. Simplicity is the best policy here and when applied to type the negative space really speaks volumes for the entire brand identity. The logo itself positions the brand on the higher end of online influencers such as HEMSLEY + HEMSLEY, and Deliciously Ella which immediately resonates with Jane’s target audience. The unique blend of classic typography and clever brand language pulls the brand together in an engaging, visual fashion. We introduced a bold colour palette that reflects Jane’s colourful personality as well as the visually attractive meal plans she creates at events and on her online webinars. Taking influence from the bright palette of some of the key ingredients she like to use mirrors throughout the brand not just in her logo but in her very own, custom brand iconography set which will feature as a way finding system throughout her cookbook design and her website.

We created Jane’s brand language and tone of voice to reflect her offering in a clever concise way. Statements like “Health to thrive” and “I’m here for the good of your health” have spawned from the creative writing process for the brand. When married together the brand language and logo mark successfully tell her brand story.

Following the identity and language creation we implemented the branding on a number of deliverables that Jane has plans to release over the coming months as the brand is launched. From cookbook designs to event design and branded collateral for conferences we visualised how successful the identity can be across all of her needs with the colour palette and brand language constantly making an appearance, strengthening the identity as a whole.

It was a pleasure to work on the branding for Jane and we look forward to the roll out as she continues to evolve and increase her brand reach. Next phase is realising her new website and social media channels.