Over the past year, I have been working directly with a farm to create a consistent vintage-style brand that reflected their passion for living close to the land producing & delivering farm-to-table goods to local consumers. Behind every good brand, there is a meaningful story. Part of this project was creating a cohesive BRAND STRATEGY and then making it come to life both visually and tangibly.
Branding Story // Mission Statement
Over the past five generations, we've learned that faith and family come first! Our grandparents lived a simple life, close to the land & their creator.
We want to share a piece of that life with you. It is our hope that your family will create blessed memories together around your table and in your home - always mindful of the gifts God has provided.
- The Lutz Family
Working directly with the owners, we crafted a logo that would reflect the traditional values of the farm and yet appeal to a modern client. The challenge as a designer is making a brand story come to life.
First, through one-on-one consultations, I am able to develop a strategy that is both reflective of the client and their ideal target market. But before beginning this process, I like to better understand the client's background and aspirations; understanding where their passions and strengths helps craft the strategy and lay a foundation and framework for the overall project.
Second, I like to get a feel for what their overall aesthetic is and how they see both themselves and their business. View your brand as a person, where does he or she live? What is the Brand's favorite season? One of the ways this is done is through creating a mood board.
MOO-D-BOARD
LUTZ FAMILY FARMS MOOD BOARD
Before you craft a message, you must also know who you're talking to. Who is the target market? Who are you trying to attract to your brand? Who does your brand serve and what are their needs? How does your brand/business help meet those needs? Does your message speak to these needs? Visually we try to do this with a logo and a simple wordmark or branding statement.
The design process is just that, a process and it takes time. Before starting, I like to know their likes and dislikes when it comes to design. Ultimately, this is their brand and I want it to be as reflective of them as possible. Colors and font styles are items that can be laid out in a mood board and further discussed upon completion of the preliminary design process. Using branding words to help describe your brand helps create a simple starting point before designing.
For this project, neither the brand nor the business plan had been fully developed. This truly was simply and an idea that needed to be STOKED and given a little flame. This may have been the most difficult part of the project. Because we already had a story, it was easy to use the Farms personal history as inspiration for the overall project. We digitalized old family photos that we knew we wanted to use throughout the branding process.
From these images & the mood board, we were able to define some branding words. These words and phrases are used both in form and in story. They inspire everything we do as designers. The more concise and cohesive we can create this list - the more consistent your brand will feel, which will give your business greater perceived trust and value.
A brand is the set of expectations, memories, stories and relationships that, taken together, account for a consumer’s decision to choose one product or service over another. - Seth Godin
Branding Words // Buzzwords
Nostalgic - Traditional - Organic - Heritage - Family - Farm to Table
At this point in the process, we were able to begin designing a logo. The owners still hadn't settled on a name for their farm as a whole, but over time refined their name based on the designs. In the end, Lutz Family Farms | Heritage Meats was the final winner. Because the farm also offers other services, there needed to be two separate logos, but have a similar feel and style.
Logo Design
Brand Icons // illustrations
Collateral // Printed Marketing Materials
Social Media
As a marketing & design firm, we work directly with our clients to help develop a marketing strategy based on what was discussed in the brand strategy. In order to market well, we research regional competition and also look at industry standards as a whole. While this is a relatively new business model, it has been around for as long as there have been domesticated animals. The internet has allowed farm-to-table businesses to reach a much wider and more niched market. Community supported agriculture is gaining national traction and consumers are demanding healthier alternatives at a more affordable price.
This is their mission: Deliver healthy flavorful locally-grown meat directly to consumers at an affordable price.
In essence, Lutz Family Farms wants people to live they way their forebears did only without the hassle of actually having to raise their own animals. In addition, they want to create personal relationships with their clients - sharing their personal family history and recipes and also delivering their products directly to the consumer and loading it directly into their freezer. Service and quality with a small hometown traditional values. They want to bring people back to sitting around a table and slowly eating a meal together, as a family!
Content Marketing // Brand Video
Lastly, we created and launched a website with an online store. The goal was to make this website as easy to navigate as possible. There needed to be enough information to educate the consumer, but not overwhelm them. For some, purchasing food directly from a farmer can be intimidating, it isn't what they are to and because there are often fees associated with s
