Tag Archives: Bellwether Farms

Graphis honors MOI for brand work.

We are pleased to announce that our branding work for Bellwether Farms has been awarded a Gold Award in Graphis Branding 6.

Graphis Branding 6 presents the work of some of the biggest names in design today. Hundreds of images from the year’s award-winning branding campaigns are displayed in a lavishly produced publication and on their website. Graphis publishes the world’s most significant and influential works from the greatest talent in Design, Advertising, and Photography.

49 design agencies from 18 countries (22 from the USA) were selected for Platinum and Gold awards. Only three firms from California were recipients. To see all of the award-winning work for Bellwether Farms, visit: http://www.graphis.com/entry/d02e2090-4b30-11e2-a2c9-f23c91dffdec/

Selections of the work of Mark Oliver, Inc. are in the permanent collection of the Library of Congress. It has received more than 450 international and national awards. Mr. Oliver is a recipient of the AIGA/Santa Barbara Fellow recognition. He is a member of the Board of Trustees of Brooks Institute http://www.brooks.edu/.

Bellwether Farms branding & packaging: a short case study.

Bellwether Farms branding

“The teller of stories has everywhere and always found eager listeners” Stith Thompson, “The Folktale”

Bellwether Farms Yogurt Flexo printed yogurt cups.

Bellwether Farms is California’s original sheep dairy. The family-owned creamery, located in the hills of western Sonoma County, is an award-winning pioneer in the production of sheep and cow milk aged farmstead cheeses and yogurts. The objective for the team at MOI (Mark Oliver, Inc.) was to create a memorable branding program that projected the character of the Callahan family farm and the artisan quality of the products.

Bellwether Farms Ricotta A sleeve over the cup creates a prominent billboard. A warm ivory color adds to the natural look of the line.

Our solution was to create a brand story which conveyed the hand-crafted qualities of the products. The use of charming illustrations and a muted color palette had the advantage of not only reflecting the values of the country farm, it also kept the reproduction to an affordable three-colors. The art was easily reproduced on a variety of structures and stocks using flexography or lithography. It graphically stands out on a web page.

Bellwether Farms Creme Fraiche The lid of the cup is printed so the product can be identified once opened.

Bellwether Farms Fromage Blanc

But mainly, we created a stylish and approachable brand which stood out from a crowd of look-alike products. We went the opposite direction from the competition. We zigged when everyone else zagged.

Since the rollout of the brand and packaging, Bellwether Farms has grown to be one of the most successful producers of artisan cheeses and yogurts in the country. As an added bonus, the branding and design have been recognized with dozens of awards from every major magazine, website, and competition, receiving most recently a Gold Award for branding from Graphis.

Bellwether Farms Cheese Wheels These artisan cheese wheels are shipped whole to specialty shops and retailers. After considerable searching, we found a food-grade paper stock that was opaque enough to print on, that would also adhere to the surface of the cheese, and could easily be cut without tearing. The cheeses are sliced along the radiating lines, providing the consumer with a brand label on the piece they take home.

Credits: Illustrations by Sudi McCollum; photography by Alan Campbell and Eric Gordon. Photography © of the photographers.

Bellwether Farms basket ricotta packaging

Bellwether Farms is an award-winning producer of farmstead cheeses and yogurts located in Sonoma County, California. A long-time client of our firm, they had invented a new way of crafting ricotta that brought to mind the exceptional qualities and flavors of the old-world ricottas of northern Italy.

A key component of capturing that quality was to use a special basket to allow the ricotta to drain and form properly. Removing the ricotta from the basket to package it would destroy the product’s unique qualities, so it was decided to keep the basket and vacuum form a plastic seal around it.

The large piece of stiff film necessary to form the basket’s lid presented unique challenges for packaging. The client and design team at MOI also saw an opportunity to use the basket to showcase the product. Keeping the sides open allowed the design team to create a flap that tucked in on either side, snapping into position and holding the basket firmly in place. The open sides doubled as a “window” displaying the product within the basket.

Mark Oliver, CEO of the branding firm, noted, “often the most work goes into creating simple looking yet complex structures. After a number of prototypes, this elegant solution met the criteria for showcasing the product and maintaining the long-established branding scheme, while using environmentally sensitive outer packaging materials and soy inks.”