Branding and packaging design
Waitrose Supermarket, branded by Williams Murray Hamm, is aimed at people with allergies but also health-conscious people, and aims to celebrate rather than cut down on “free of” foods.
Designer Williams Murray Hamm has designed the branding and packaging for the new range “Free from” from Waitrose’s own brand, in an attempt to show it off as a “great tasting lifestyle choice” rather than making it feel “apologetic.”
A brand against allergies
The private label range is for people with allergies and intolerances and includes gluten-free, nut-free, dairy-free, and soy-free foods.
However, the study intends that the selection also attracts people without allergies, who choose not to go for health reasons, says Chris Ribet, chief designer at Williams Murray Hamm.
“From the beginning, we wanted to create something very different for the category,” he says. “There is a general tone in [la categoría], who is quite apologetic about the way he talks about the food, focusing on the allergens and what has been removed rather than making the food feel delicious.
“So we took an editorial approach, almost like a photography magazine like Cereal, to include beautifully shot photography and handcrafted typography to make [el rango] you feel beautiful, and so everything looks like great tasting food, ”he says.
Packaging design project for sub-brand
The new sub-brand follows The John Lewis Partnership’s recent rebranding in September, led by Pentagram partner Harry Pearce, in which the John Lewis and Waitrose joint ventures received new identities.
The new Waitrose Freefrom brand focuses on the word “freefrom” in a lowercase, sans-serif font in white, which is a custom-made version of a typeface produced by Foundry Commercial Type and was produced in conjunction with design studio West One. Arts.
Sophisticated and simple
This type is intended to be “sophisticated and simple,” and is used in conjunction with a pair of parenthesis symbols (square brackets, “{}”, which frame text and food photography. These brackets double as two letter shapes “f Lowercase.
This logo runs alongside the ‘full of flavor’ tagline, and the new Waitrose & Partners logo, which was launched as part of the new John Lewis and Waitrose brands that sought to put more emphasis on the business structure owned by the owners. company employees.
By highlighting food through the support device, the new brand aims to “change the mindset to ‘food-free’,” says Ribet, celebrating food as “full of flavor” rather than focusing on eliminating allergens like gluten and lactose. The hope is to present food-free as a “positive and progressive eating option,” he says.
Color analogy for food
A color palette of taupe, gray and ivory complements the food photography, with utensils and bowls made of marble, zinc and ceramic.
“I didn’t want a single color to appear on all the products, so we used different temperatures of that taupe as the background color, reflecting the different stones shown in the photograph,” says Ribet.
Gill Sans is used as a secondary typeface for the body copy, which aligns the brand with the John Lewis and Waitrose rebrands as it is widely used in their identities.
The studio has worked with photographer Jonathan Gregson, who was inspired by the way food magazines present food.
In certain product packages, such as cakes, the photograph is replaced by a clear window, and only the parentheses, the gray background color and the logo are used for a “simple message,” says Ribet.
“The market for free has expanded exponentially with the way that people’s lifestyles are changing,” he says. “Their main consumers, 71%, are looking for allergen-free products, but there is an additional 30% who buy for free due to their lifestyle choices. We wanted our brand to move forward with the progress of how people are buying. ”
Waitrose’s Freefrom range includes more than 40 products, including gluten-free lasagna, spaghetti, flapjacks and granola, and lactose-free halloumi, mozzarella and feta.
The range is currently launching in Waitrose stores across the country, and the sub-brand is rolling out across all touchpoints, including printed materials such as billboards, food packages on the shelves, and online platforms, including the Waitrose website.
