Brine
LOGO + BRANDING + PACKAGING
Hilo, Hawaii
Brine makes fermented food products such as kimchi and saurkraut, as well as prepared grab & go dishes, served in many food service and grocery locations on the Big Island of Hawaii.
Logo
The owner Zach Larsen came to me at the beginning of 2019. He had been in business for about a year, selling his products only at farmers markets on the East side of Hawaii.
His packaging for his signature kimchi and kraut were mason jars with only a 2-inch round sticker featuring a logo that he had created in Wix using a stock graphic of a wave.
Though he was still new and growing, his product and brand was already starting to make a name for itself in the local community. Therefore, we wanted to retain every bit of momentum that Brine had going for it, and only build off of it and get that ‘ripcurl’ going at the perfect time which he had approached me.
I redrew the logo and refashioned the type, however honored the original signature, only making improvements without throwing anything out.
Packaging
I also designed new packaging for the kimchi & krauts.
We traded the mason jars for a much lower-cost resealable food bag. It features a full front and back label with all necessary product information and space to boast the features that help sell the products. The labels are thermal printed labels, also cutting packaging costs dramatically. We were limited to black & white, and fortunately this look was built into the branding.
We also made custom illustrations of each of the products’ ingredients (as well as an icon of the owner’s actual chef’s knife) to feature in the margins on the front label.
Resealable food bags in place of mason jars and thermal transfer labels in place of ink printed stickers cut packaging cost dramatically while we used design within the limitations to drastically improved the presence of the product.
Website
In late 2019 I designed Brine’s first website. It is a simple site to give an impression of the brand and its ethos, as well as to open the door for catering and wholesale clients, and convey the locations where product products and grab & go can be found.
Results
I have served as brand consultant for Brine for just over a year now. In that time Brine has grown from a single farmers market vendor serving direct to customers one day per week, to now having an expanding roster of wholesale accounts to stores across Hawaii island.
The product line has grown from 2 products to six products, as well as having several grab & go meal locations.
Brine has also developed a catering presence on Big Island, serving private parties, corporate events, retreats and more.
In 2020 the food product line is planned to about double, as will wholesale accounts.
