New-to-market plant-based challenger brand The Flavourists identified the need for a brand to help everyone enjoy the feel good factor of cooking and eating more plants. The team came to us looking for help in creating the next big thing in plant-based and turning the seed of their idea into a brand in full bloom, from name to visual language – in a nine-month design sprint.

Insights around plant-based trends showed that consumers are seeking more quick and easy solutions, a trend which has grown by 16% in a two-year period. In addition, the growing interest in meal kits has risen by 31% and consumers are becoming more adventurous and therefore seek more diverse and culturally interesting flavours.

The Flavourists mission is to break the rules of plant-based, aiming to offer more than just functional plant-based swaps. Their mission is to bring colour, vibrancy, and positivity to a category with a traditionally negative lexicon.

We saw an opportunity to challenge the dominant narrative within the plant-based category. Two clear arguments were emerging to convince consumers to adopt this food, with competitors either talking about the meatiest non-meat or waving the worthy vegan lifestyle flag. The focus on the responsible qualities of the food has meant the joyful side of it has been largely ignored. We wanted to bridge this tension, so instead of being ‘free-from’, the brand is ‘full of’: full of flavour, full of freshness, full of energy, full of excitement, and full of inspiration.

Starting with the name, The Flavourists, which perfectly captures this by deliberately welcoming and uniting consumers and the brand around a love of food and taste, rather than a reduction of meat. Similar principles were used for creating the brand mark. At its heart is an image of a pan, creating a visual snapshot of the moment of creative magic in the kitchen and celebrating the joy of cooking and eating. The flavourist letters being thrown into the air over the pan acts as a catalyst for ‘more’ – more flavour, more freshnes and more satisfaction. The letterforms take inspiration from foodie codes – designed to make you drool, serifs that feel like scoops and dollops of sauce, each letter feels unique but considered.

Add in a colour palette that picks from real, natural food goodness, and photography featuring fresh and vibrant plant-based food tossed upward from the pan, The Flavourists is a brand that celebrates being joyful, expressive and above all else, foodie!

The visual identity that was created has brilliantly captured The Flavourists’ passion for flavour and the joy of cooking. It reinvents the design language around this category, offering a far more positive and richer interpretation of the delicious potential of plant-based food.

In just nine months from the start of the project to launch, we were able to deliver an iconic visual identity that perfectly embodies The Flavourists’ inspirational approach to plant-based food and create a digital-first brand which can move effortlessly across all touchpoints. Upon launch, The Flavourists secured shelf space in Waitrose in-store and online, and Booths and Ocado shortly after.