Giving a pioneer organic coffee brand a new buzz

July 17, 2019Newsagency, award-winning, Beverages, brand consultant, branding, branding agency, Café Altura, Coffee, consultant, consumer packaged goods, design, drinks, food and beverage, food packaging design, graphic packaging design, Mark Oliver, Mark Oliver Inc, MOI, package design, strategic brand designMark Oliver

The Origins of Cafe Altura date back to the late 1970’s when a group of organic enthusiasts gathered in Ojai, California to live and work on a 75-acre citrus farm. Their idea was to farm the ranch organically and develop related businesses.

One afternoon, a group of visitors told them a story of a farm in Mexico that had been growing coffee using organic and Biodynamic techniques for 20 years. They went off to Chiapas, Mexico, and begin importing organically-grown coffee beans, becoming the first company in the U.S. to do so.

Cafe Altura has been in business for more than thirty years but the branding had not been updated since the 1980s. We were given the assignment to create new branding and packaging designs, stress organic, improve quality and value perceptions and increase visibility in the store. The design had to work with whole bean, ground and instant products for more than 80 SKUs.

We focused on the firm’s authenticity, the real “story” behind the product; on organic ingredients; on the quality of the beans sourced from family farms; and on a great taste experience.

We created a narrative of the company history with the text and specific visual cues. An illustration of a farmer tending his coffee trees anchors the concept visually, focusing attention on the organically grown family-farm product link. The new look projects a warm, friendly, feeling to the consumer and has been well-received by customers, brokers, distributors and store buyers.

How to market Mochi ice cream to consumers.

June 4, 2019Newsbrand consultant, branding, branding agency, Bubbies, consultant, consumer packaged goods, design, Graphic Design, graphic packaging design, ice cream, Mark Oliver, Mark Oliver Inc, mochi, MOI, package design, packaging, packaging design, strategic brand designMark Oliver

Bubbies Hawaii got its start over 30 years ago making slow-churned premium ice cream in the Hawaiian Islands. After becoming one of the most popular regional ice creams, it introduced mochi ice cream: a partially flattened sweet rice dough ball wrapped around an ice cream core. Sales took off. To expand their nationwide sales, Bubbies needed to re-design their branding and packaging.

The team at MOI (Mark Oliver, Inc.) found that no brand was doing a decent job of presenting mochi ice cream to the buying public and that a good opportunity existed to stand apart from the crowd. For example, photos or illustrations failed to give the product of any manufacturer appetite appeal. And none showed product or explained what they were in such a way that to a consumer unfamiliar with mochi ice cream would want to try them—unless they were already buying them. That approach does not grow sales.

MOI focused on creating appealing visual images of the 20+ SKUs: various exotic fruits and ingredients made enticing flavor cues. We made a new wordmark that was easily read yet referenced the old. The team used classic type faces, an easy-to-understand explanation of what a mochi was, and added plenty of white space to focus attention on the hero shot, completing the identity lockup for Bubbies. The new design re-positioned Bubbies mochi ice cream as visually appealing and a decidedly upscale dessert and treat.

Old packaging

Spirits branding, au naturel.

January 4, 2019Newsalcohol, brand consultant, branding, branding agency, consultant, consumer packaged goods, design, Forager, Graphic Design, graphic packaging design, hand made, Mark Oliver, Mark Oliver Inc, MOI, organic, package design, packaging, packaging design, Paso Robles, spirits, strategic brand design, wild ingredientsMark Oliver

Forager is a craft distillery located on California’s Central Coast. They hand-make single batch spirits using the “pure heart of the spirit”and select locally harvested fruits and grains and hand-gathered wild herbs as ingredients.

The design team researched the marketplace, strategized product positioning, and proposed an abrupt departure from typical spirit label design to illuminate the brand’s unique qualities and capture attention.

Beginning by creating the name—a reference to how ingredients are sourced, MOI commissioned colorful illustrations of plants used during distillation to tell the story of each spirit.

A “badge” on the clear front label of each designates the source of the ingredients and calls out the salient spirit details.