Project: Onesto Foods
Onesto Foods is a health food company based in Newburyport, Massachusetts.
Onesto produces artisan crackers, which are gluten and GMO-free. They started their food company with a cracker product and plan to make and sell more delicious and wholesome products in the future. They had initially launched with a logo made from clip art, printed onto labels by a local quick-print shop. Onesto was ready to invest in a professional logo and critical branding items. Dabcovich Design helped Onesto develop its identity and packaging, staying within the bounds of production limitations while raising professionalism. The branding efforts have paid off, with Onesto sales proliferating nationwide.
Logo
The first task was to create a logo for Onesto. They wanted their logo to exhibit the same notion of simplicity that their products carry. Onesto crackers are made with simple, natural ingredients and are made by hand. They are Earth- and people-friendly with their wind-powered production, recyclable packaging, and whole, gluten-free ingredients.
Onesto means “honest” in Italian, and the traditional aspect of (Tuscan) home cooking was a character trait to consider in designing Onesto’s logo. Additionally, Onesto wanted to portray a fresh and modern flair, competing with the other food products on the shelves. The Onesto identity needed to be seen as both classic and current.
After three rounds of sketches and reviews/collaboration, we arrived at the final Onesto logo (above).
Creating a logo starts with idea exploration via sketches, followed by collaborative reviews and iterations. Sketches enable discussions about symbolism, meaning, typography, taglines, and potential usages for the logo. Stories are told, and the brand personality emerges.
For Onesto’s identity development, we explored concepts based on family, tradition, Tuscany, natural ingredients, authenticity, hand-made, warmth, home, health, delicious, wholesome, specialty, simplicity, and rustic.
Labels
The first version of Onesto’s cracker packaging consisted of kraft paper bags with labels affixed by hand. After reviewing several design options and envisioning how they would look on the packages, Onesto chose the final label design with a strip of color indicating each flavor.
Despite production restrictions, such as no bleeds and a standard shape and size, Onesto met its goal of exhibiting a more professional brand with a clear way of distinguishing its products.
Onesto surpassed sales goals, leading to printed boxed packaging.
Boxed Packaging
After a few months of ongoing sales increases, Onesto was able to graduate from bags to boxes. They wanted to retain the kraft paper look and the overall personality we had established. The initial box design evolved from the original kraft bag and labeled packaging. Boxes allowed ample room to tell the Onesto story, include ingredients, and pair suggestions.
We experimented with design and messaging before deciding on the design direction in the sketch below, which served as a final concept sketch and a guide for our photoshoot. Onesto had considered launching a make-your-own product, so this sketch includes how we could make that product look related but different than the crackers. That product is on hold for now, as it got less enthusiasm from retailers.
To prepare for the photo shoot, we used stock photos and photoshopped them to look as close to what we had in mind. This way, we thoroughly discussed the shoot's intentions with Onesto and the photographer.
Photography
Since the new packaging no longer had a window, as the bags had, Onesto wanted to represent their product with photography. Photos enabled us to show the differences between the crackers by highlighting key ingredients in the background and focusing on details of the crackers, like grains of pink Himalayan salt or dark grey poppy seeds.
We have produced a library of photography for Onesto for each of the different cracker flavors (now we have 4) and some general mood photos Onesto uses online for the press and marketing.
Print-ready File Production
Packaging design requires dyes and accuracy so elements are centered and appear where they are supposed to on the package. Also, making sure the bar codes are correct is vital! The printer provides a PDF proof once they have a file in their system ready to rip. If that is okay, they provide a hard copy proof to check colors and one last chance to proofread the content. Here is an example of how the final files look before being released to the printer:
Box Updates
After a few months, Onesto was ready to add a new cracker flavor (Everything) and adjust both design and content. We added more color to the latest versions and made the pairing items prominent on the back. We also added new certifications.
Finally, Onesto decided they wanted more obvious color differentiation between the flavors. Below is a "sketch" of the final design before it went into production.
What happened next?
Onesto is cooking up some great new products, stay tuned!
In the meantime, find out where you can buy these delicious crackers at: www.onestofoods.com