Sycamore Smyth is an independent kitchen providing high-quality, home-cooked ready meals to the people of North London. These easy-to-prepare meals have captured the interest of busy parents and time-poor professionals alike who lack the time or inclination to cook but value eating wholesome meals made with seasonal ingredients.

Having established a loyal following and strong reputation in the local area, Sycamore Smyth knew that refreshing their branding and packaging was an important step if they were to expand into delicatessens and food shops further afield. Our task was to create a distinctive visual style for the brand as well as to design more professional packaging that reflects the quality of the food and maximises visibility on the shelves amongst well-known and well-established brands.

With little control over how the ready meals are displayed due to wide distribution in crowded fridges and freezers, it was essential for the packaging to create impact. Likewise, for a business that uses social media as a key platform for order generation, a striking visual style online is important for creating consistency and growing brand awareness.

Sycamore Smyth’s previous brand featured a cyanotype print created with a single sycamore leaf. Thanks to their distinctive blue colour, cyanotype prints are both striking and unusual and so we decided to continue with this process but to use it to champion the ingredients in the meals. The new identity features a suite of cyanotype prints, each of which is handmade using edible herbs and spices. These prints celebrate the variety and quality of ingredients and add a distinctive textural element to the brand across all touchpoints.

The packaging needed to be flexible and able to accommodate an ever-changing range of dishes while also being cost-effective and looking professional. We were able to achieve this by utilising off-the-shelf stickers which are customised for each dish. This means the strong brand style is upheld while it also brings consistency to each of the dishes.

We’re pleased to say that the packaging is 100% biodegradable and utilises specialist trays and film, as well as uncoated stocks and vegetable inks for both the sleeve and the stickers.

You can find Sycamore Smyth ready meals in delis and food shops across London.