I love seeing brands work towards becoming fully sustainable. They are creating ways to align their sustainable goals with their services, practices, marketing and content. It is fantastic to witness and be a part of!
Last week, I talked about the National Trust and how its branding reflects the charity’s sustainable efforts and services, even down to the material used for the membership cards and the membership magazine wrap.
This week, I’m taking a look at the purpose led organisation Waste Knot, their sustainable mission, and how I worked with them to transform their logo and visual communications to match these goals.
Waste Knot, “rescuing surplus fruit and vegetables one crooked carrot at one time.”
Sustainable organisations focus on identifying a problem and providing a solution
Jess Latchford, Director of Waste Knot has over 10 years’ experience in the fresh produce industry. She supplied directly to catering businesses and worked closely with UK farmers. During these years, Jess noticed a massive amount of produce being thrown out for aesthetic reasons or simply surplus to requirement. Maybe a carrot was not the right colour, shape, or length so it was rejected. With a determination to stop this problem, Waste Knot was born.
Look at your organisation’s backstory and use it for your branding. Tell your story!
Waste Knot reached out to farmers who were also sustainable in their growing and business practices. They developed relationships with these farmers and brought them together with chefs that had the same sustainability beliefs. They then delivered their “second class produce to those who care for the environment and are willing to pay for produce that is as delicious and nutritious as its so-called ‘perfect’ counterpart. We don’t believe in discriminating against it or the farmer’s time and efforts and neither do the people we work with.” They made the process straightforward, while remaining true to why Waste Knot was founded.
So the next step was to look at their logo, design layout, and visuals.
Logo refresh enhances identity, messaging, and relationships
At the heart of the refining and brand development process sits Waste Knot’s story. Their purpose. This defines what was really important to Waste Knot, and how best to reflect the sustainable enterprises brand ethos and services. Waste Knot’s vision included big plans and they were eagerly ready to take the world by storm. This meant their brand identity and styling needed to step up to match!
Understanding the story behind defines a united design direction and lays the firm foundations upon which everything else is built. Read more about my comprehensive process and strategy.
Their original logo was limiting them. It wasn’t adaptable for their needs or vision. So I created an illustrative style that would work across their branding. From refreshing their logo design through to developing of a collection of illustrations and brand styling. This style had a screen print effect to evoke the feeling and texture of handmade and down to earth. It brought the sustainability and farm-to-table concept to life without saying a word. It was achieved by using specific colours, fonts, layouts, and, of course, the screen printing technique.
The core characteristic of ‘screen printing’ is the natural imperfections the process creates, which captures the ethos of Waste Knot and ties it in seamlessly with the feel of Waste Knot’s branding.
Use an infographic to show your process and services
Waste Knot provided an alternative method to get food from ‘field to plate’, tweaking the conventional way to a more sustainable way. The Waste Knot way. From the beginning growing, ordering and harvesting produce until it was delivered, cooked and brought to customers in a restaurant to eat.
Part of Waste Knot’s strategy is to help educate about the different issues and innovations. They wanted to explain their unique process in a simple, easy to follow visual that could be shared. So I created this infographic.
The infographic took the relationships (connecting farmers and chefs) through the Waste Knot journey. Showing how the enterprise works alongside the conventional way with a little twist (visually bringing in the ‘knot’ of the brand name into play). Rescuing surplus fresh produce in the sustainable, effective and innovative way. A way that:
- works with nature
- feels good for all parties involved
- environmentally friendly, ‘no added food miles’
- enhances the creativity and flexibility
- celebrates the origin of the food
It maintained the precise feel and ethos of branding created with the logo refresh and new styling. Every detail tells the Waste Knot story. Even down to the paper stock it’s printed on, a woodfree uncoated fine paper which is produced using FSC certified pulp (the mark of responsible forestry). Our printers, Palm Print, are also part of the Carbon Capture Programme which means that each print order helps the Woodland Trust plant native woodland areas around the UK.
The brand story can be seen through the visuals, design layout, and messaging. It is never hidden or pushed to the side. That is the key to a successful brand refresh! Your story needs to be carried out in every aspect, including marketing, social media, print, website content, and more.
To find out more, contact me today.
Design: Becks Neale
