Sweet Nonna

Branding · Lettering · Copywriting
Strategy · Visual Identity · Packaging Design

A new heart-healthy honey-based food company
looking to stand out in the farmer's market.

Sweet Nonna was looking to launch their new health food company and reached out for a brand identity and product packaging system that would stand above the typical farmers-market standard.

The initial branding discussion brought up a few key things that they wanted to come across in the design: 1) Healthy, heart-friendly ingredients; 2) Everything is made by hand by a real Nonna (grandmother); and 3) An emphasis on kindness and caring.

I developed some early directions in Illustrator, focusing on creating an approachable wordmark with some alternate lockups and icons. While there was potential there, I went back to some early sketches and began to flesh out an idea that took some gestural writing that felt kind of rough and crunchy but also sweet and friendly. After spending a bunch of time on that “this took no time” look, that direction was added into the mix. We decided pretty quickly that this final approach was the way to go, so I further refined the elements and built a few supporting iterations of the logo.

Once the main brand identity was locked down, we moved to packaging. We were unsure of what their production capacity would be at first, or how many flavors would be produced, so we initially leaned towards printing a single flavor-neutral bag design that would use custom stickers to show individiual variations. The one clear criteria was that the bag needed to show the granola inside.

Branding exploration - Type, color, lockups

Eventually we decided on printing individual bags for each flavor. After some time reviewing different naming conventions we decided on naming each flavor as simply as possible. We settled on the initial lineup and built out a color palette that could handle the first 3-4 flavors with room for more to come.

The granola was an instant hit, and right away the product line expanded to include wildflower honey and then almond cookies. When the founders’ son in the Marine Corps shared that his outfit loved the granola but wanted a more rugged package, we created a variety called Field Snack aimed at the military and hunting markets.

Most recently, they introduced a chili-pepper-infused Hot Honey and accompanying Hot Honey-flavored granola. We felt that customers needed to quickly see that these Hot Honey products were different from the rest, so we branched out from our more muted color palette and brought in a fire engine red to help warn people that they were in for something fiery.