Logo and Branding: Fresh Point
Posted: March 19, 2012 Filed under: Food & Drink, Logos & Branding | Tags: animals, Art, branding, cartoon, characters, design, Designers Anonymous, Drink, food, fruit, graphic, identity, illustration, illustrative, leaf, logo, logo news, logo-mark, logo-type, news, packaging, packaging news, review, richard baird, russian, sandwiches, st petersburg, typography, vegetables 6 Comments »
Fresh Point is a new and healthy fast food cafe that sells soups, wraps, sandwiches, fresh juice and yoghurt from its location on Nevsky Prospekt, St. Petersburg, Russia. The brand approached London-based agency Designers Anonymous who, utilising a simple leaf/arrow device to communicate fresh and fast, developed a complete visual identity system that included packaging solutions, interior design, POS, uniforms and signage.
“The pre-prepared cafe/eatery concept now commonplace in the UK is still a relatively new concept in Russia. Our challenge was to create a brand identity that expressed the fast & fresh eatery concept whilst also educating the Russian consumers to the individual benefits of the products and service.”
“We devised a versatile leaf shaped logo that doubles as a pointer. It points to a variety of fresh benefit messages, such as ‘Made fresh every morning’. The counter within the ‘e’ contains a small version of the ‘leaf pointer’ device. Each of the letters from the logotype was tweaked to suit. The leaf/pointer can rotate through 360 and can change colour to become either a blue water drop or brown coffee drop on a coffee cup. Sandwich pacakging is sealed with a Fresh Point leaf sticker that points to a message reading ‘This sandwich was made fresh in our kitchen this morning.”
- Taken from the Designers Anonymous website.
This is a very simple concept with a clear sense of communication and a smart triality that is ideal for an audience new to such a proposition. The resolution of leaf, arrow and droplet into a single logo-mark has been used to great effect throughout the type, packaging and illustrations. This never feels forced or saturated with the smaller details of the penguin’s beak, chopped leaves and my favourite, a pink horseradish, adding layers of detail to what is a fairly common form. The serif type choice appears earthy and practical and while I am not keen on the missing title or the tight spacing of the ‘p’ and ‘o’ the subtle customisation of the ‘e’ is a nice touch that ties it well to the other assets. Like the logo-type and mark the illustrations have been constructed with a straightforward simplicity that adds a playful quality but avoids becoming childish, each has a consistent character and their more organic execution offers a smart contrast against the geometry of the leaf. These brighter illustrations work well against a fairly conventional white and lime/natural green colour palette across the packaging and dining environment that together work to keep everything looking interesting, fresh and natural.
The simplicity of the idea does make it feel a little familiar but the attention to type and the consistent extension and execution of the leaf detail across multiple touch points and with a variety of functionalities give the brand a broad and unique personality.
Visit the BP&O Logo Gallery for a chronological guide to all the identities reviewed on BP&O or head over to Designers Anonymous for more images.
More work from Designers Anonymous:
 |
Richard BairdRichard is a British freelance designer and writer who specialises in the development of logos, branding and packaging. He has written for Brand New and Design Week, is an editor for The Dieline, has featured in Computer Arts magazine and also runs the resource Design Survival. |
Love the simple illustrations.
Beautifully simple execution of how the logo is carried across packaging, and the illustrations have a pleasing charm about them. I really like it. But I do feel the logo itself has taken its inspiration from the old General Foods logo (circa 1986) http://goo.gl/gDMhE which I stumbled upon on another blog.
Hi Gary thanks for adding your opinion. I think that’s the downside of utilising such a common and familiar shape, I knew someone would eventually stumble on something pretty close. The internal shape from the General Foods identity is close, the highlight makes it even more so but the quality of all the other assets and Designers Anonymous’ past work makes me think that it’s purely co-incidental. Do you think that the appropriation and reinterpretation of an existing design as base to build an original piece of work from is acceptable?
Hi Richard, I believe you are right about the pitfalls of utilising of such a common shape and do think that it was purely co-incidental in the similarities. I do feel that Designers Anonymous have successfully given this logo a real individual touch in the way it has be applied across the brand, which does lead me to think that the reinterpretation of an existing design, even if it is not in the public eye anymore, is acceptable, as long as it is done with consideration to how the previous logo may have been used as to not just re imagine the brand in a new format.
The branding is genius. I’m a big fan of minimalism in design, and when a logo is constructed with simple shapes, or is itself a simple shape, there are bound to be similarities with existing logos. However, a company’s visual identity is more than just a logo; the entire branding package should be taken into account. What differentiates Fresh Point from other brands with similarly-shaped logos is the roll-out across various branding elements. In this sense it is unique and done very well.
Completely agree Jeff, there’s only so many shapes in the world it’s really about how these are combined/utilised within the context of a unique brand/product environment/experience. Like you said there are many components that make up Fresh Point’s visual identity, the leaf merely binds these together. Thanks for chipping in.