Crush Foods
A brand good enough to eat.

Crush foods, one of the largest local providers of food and drink within East Anglia, briefed our team to create a visual identity and packaging for their range of products. The brief from the client was that the packaging had to give you kitchen kudos, and something you’d want to keep on the shelf and not in the cupboard.

Our inspiration came from working closely with Crush on the development of the rebrand, we soon discovered the brand stamp needed to still have a nod to its cold pressed rapeseed oil heritage. We wanted the food to be front and centre, and Crush to sit back. So, the brand stamp had to be bold and clean, for it to be made as small as possible on the packaging.

We came up with the idea of the packaging to be a gift. A treat for you, or for someone else. The simplicity of the front of the packaging, and the edible colours makes you want to pick it up and find out more. The concept is, that when you pick it up and turn around, the back stripe and repeat patterned background, gives that gift wrapped effect, making it hard to put down, and easy to put in your basket!

When we looked to defining the brand, the new logo for Crush started with the ‘droplet’, the droplet represents a drop of oil. We felt that this shape really helps tell the story of Crush, with Rapeseed Oil being the first product they launched. The drop shape doesn’t just represent oil, it also nods towards food in general, whether that’s the water that feeds the crops, the grains used in their cereal, or the petals and leaves on fruits and flowers.

We then spent time crafting the logo stamp. The droplet turned 45° creates the counter within the ‘C’, it is also used for the full stop. The rest of the letters within the logo have radial corners that match those of the droplet giving the whole lockup a consistent, soft, playful look.

The illustrations we used within the brand are all hand drawn, we used a mix of textures and various line weights and styles. We knew these needed to look spontaneous and energetic. The imperfections and roughness of the illustrations help create a sense that this is a handcrafted, artisan product. We wanted to make sure the style of the illustrations contrasted nicely with the clean lines of the logo, creating a well-balanced brand full of character and life.

Having foodies within the Pb Studio really helped! The colours used in this brand are varied across each product to help really sell the flavours. We created the colour pallet to work well whether the food or drink is in isolation in your kitchen cupboard, or multiple products, side by side on a shop shelf. These colour pallets achieve a look that is appetising as well as indulgent, and we feel, good enough to eat!