Source
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Helping people find healthier, more sustainable food by telling the food's story in the grocery aisle
A quick note about financial product case studies
The designs below are concepts that include fake data for illustrative purposes. The names and numbers in these designs are completely made up at random and do not reflect any person, company, or group’s past, present, or future plans. Even where a group or person's name may bear similarity to a real-life group or person, the numbers and other data associated with it are random. Any similarity to real life events are purely coincidental. Nothing contained herein is or should be construed as investment advice, legal advice, solicitation or encouragement to conduct any financial transaction, or an ad for any current or future offering of any token or security.
Problem
Grocery stores are overwhelming. Despite increasing consumer interest in sustainability and health, it’s very difficult to understand the impact of buying choices.
Where did this apple come from? Which of these beef options is the most sustainably raised?
With increasing choice at the supermarket, it’s not feasible to determine this information in real time, and with such effort, most consumers don’t try, accepting labeling at face value, if they even look. And if this is difficult with individual ingredients like produce and meats, the problem becomes even worse when you consider manufactured/packaged foods with many ingredients.
Client
The company produces an in-store labeling system and mobile app that helps consumers make good buying choices easily. We have a rating system that combines information about nutrition, animal welfare, labor rights, environmental impact, and more to deliver a score for each food, making a company’s choices in producing a food visible to the consumer.
Brief
As the company grows and scales its operations, it needs a readily recognizable brand identity that communicates the mission and that stands out in the highly information-dense environment of a supermarket while still being low-touch enough to be accepted by supermarket chains to display in store.
Source is all about helping consumers understand their food’s journey to get to them —so it follows that that storytelling should be at the heart of the Source brand, too.
Source’s brand identity is about putting those stories front and center. Just as you might do a background check to establish trust, so too are these origin stories are foundational to the consumer’s trust in the grocery store.
Part of the key here was developing a brand identity that didn’t feel competitive with the diversity of brands it would appear alongside. Instead, it tries to get out of the way to let content (stories) be a primary brand element, while selectively supporting them with distinctive typography that makes it easy to identify.
Source’s primary extended/wide typography style is stable and grounded, and its selectively used monospace feels at once scientific, technical, and at home in a data-focused context, while still echoing the familiar sense of an old fashioned typewriter being used. Nothing is hidden, obscured, or unclear. It’s simple, honest, and distinct.
At the grocery store, it all starts with the “Source Tag”.
The Source Tag is designed to feel at home everywhere, like a supermarket shelf, but yet stand out anywhere. It delivers the core value of the product—food ratings—while also conveying the brand (it is also the logo) and reinforcing trust.
The color palette reflects the earthy-toned rainbow of healthy, natural food.
We’ve always been encouraged to eat a rainbow of foods, but as we all know, artificially bright colors are often a great indicator that a food is processed. Earthy colors like these intuitively communicate the joy of natural, healthy foods, and are used in the breakdown of the ratings system, too.
