Our biggest rebrand project to date!
By Cassie Bryant
Hey guys!
We are moving into the silly season and looking back at the year that was, with big smiles and huge design achievement high fives. Our portfolio has truly expanded in the last 12 months as we've undertaken a huge variety of projects from new start-ups to national brand overhauls. I want to focus today’s blog on one of our biggest (and most delicious) rebrands to date: Paris Creek Farms.
Their mantra is “great food starts with passionate farmers”. And their rebrand called for a dedicated and passionate design team to work closely alongside the Longtable Group marketing team. They have honestly been the most supportive, kind, driven and hard working client.
It was a match made in heaven. Everyone worked tirelessly and seamlessly and it really shows in the end. So pour yourself a cuppa, take a comfy seat and let me give you the inside scoop on our biggest rebrand to date; its’ challenges, its’ success’ but most importantly, what we’ve learned.
Let’s set the scene and rewind to 1988, we're standing barefoot in a lush green field, gazing out at the beautiful Adelaide Hills of South Australia on the newly settled Paris Creek Farms (PCF). They were one of the first bio-dynamic farms in Australia and believe healthier land produces healthier and happier cows. And better milk of course.
Now let’s jump forward to 2018… they’ve grown and flourished… they’ve been producing award winning, certified organic, bio-dynamic and non-artificial dairy since 1988… their core beliefs are unwavering. However, a recent change in ownership to the wonderful team at Longtable Group meant it was time to refresh this trusted brand.
(Cue udder-ly amazing design pitch to win over the hearts at PCF… and bring in the celebratory wine and cheese board for us in the studio as we begin one of our biggest projects to date!)
And the team smashed it. We won the pitch and launched ourselves into the task to transform the PCF brand into a contemporary, premium brand to reflect the quality of their award winning dairy products.
The brief was to transform PCF into a contemporary, premium brand directly reflecting their passion for quality dairy products.
Following a successful rebrand of the Longtable Group, we were familiar with the team and the process… but our first exciting hurdle was managing the scale of a project that involved large stakeholders such as Woolworths, Coles and other supermarket chains. We geared up, ordered a double-shot in our morning coffees, and really challenged ourselves to manage this re-brand flawlessly from pillar to post. What we found is that this project turned into one of the most collaborative, enjoyable and fulfilling design opportunities we have worked on to date.
Okay, where are we now?? It’s November, 2018… we are finalising all the pieces of the puzzle. The end result is a logo that acts as an identifier, a mark of quality, and also pays homage to its’ established roots. It is fresh and elegant with a new twist that will catapult this brand into 2019 and beyond. The neutral, earthy and elegant colour palette enables brand assets to flow seamlessly with the logo, imagery, typography and individual product colours. Alongside the new logo is another brand attribute; a ‘seal’. The seal was created as an additional design device as well as a message to display the three most important points summarising PCF; Established in 1988, food for purists and Australian crafted.
The brand rollout included website conceptual design and guidelines, business cards and stationary, POS show stands, marketing collateral and of course, product packaging for 65 Sku’s. The packaging design covers a full range of yogurts, quarks, soft and hard cheeses, butters and milks. If you’re anything like we were in January and scratching your head as to what ‘quark’ is – we can confidently say we now know our quarks from our trademarks (they’re soft creamy cheeses that are super high in protein, probiotics and perfect for cooking!)
Now let’s wrap this up… what did we learn?
Keep focused and keep your client close.
Design direction can go full circle when major stakeholders are involved. We've all been there. But we learned that keeping our creative minds trained on the brand purpose, heritage and vision kept everyone on track. Being transparent with our client, keeping the ol' communication channels open and including our client along the design journey built a relationship based on trust which gave us the confidence to design boldly and craft a little bit of magic.Big brands require dedicated staff.
No pain, no gain… Move over because Creatik has the designers to tackle any project, big or small. We have absolutely loved the process and seeing the final product on the shelves. We feel all warm and fuzzy when our clients are over the MOO-n as well!Designers need to be vigilant from start to finish.
A successful rebrand means designing a solution that will stand out. It also means keeping the customers centre and front to make sure we're creating something that appeals to them, makes it easier for them to find on-shelf and attracts a new set of 'brand' new fans. That'll be us, creating brand awareness. Helping to drive demand. Making brands that are impossible to ignore. Tick, tick, tick.
We're thrilled with the work. We hope you love it too and think their delicious products will sit beautifully on our next grazing table, we hope you agree.
Thank you Longtable Group and Paris Creek Farms, what an amazing refresh!