This illustrative approach all started with a new accompaniment to the brand’s classic logotype: a moving, vibrant sun that acts as a new core mark and a warm nod to the Mediterranean origins of Ottolenghi’s food. This fun signature was created in the studio using cut-outs in a “spontaneous and joyful manner” says Julian. The sun, coloured in the brand’s quintessential red, aims to serve as an iconic representation of Ottolenghi across restaurants, delis, menus and food packaging — one that you’ll start to see as much as the steady logotype.
This new joyful spirit also came to be personified in a painterly face created by artist and friend of Ottolenghi, Ivo Bisignano. Unlike the sun, this face appears sparingly across applications, “appearing out of nowhere like a wink or little spirit”, says Julian. An illustrated expression that some might recognise from Ottolenghi’s ceramics, this silly friendly face is animated to communicate a range of human emotions online and can be found in stores, peeking round the edges of jar labels and packaging.
Based on the spontaneous sun mark and playful faces, Irving & Co also created a comprehensive series of cut-outs, using paper to illustrate a visual library of Ottolenghi’s classic ingredients. Pomegranates, fish and beans will now be stamping the deli’s paper bags, showing off just a snippet of the wonderful image making of foods of all shapes and sizes that organise the ‘Foodipedia’ section on the new Ottolenghi website — a satisfying A-Z guide of the ingredients that define the brand and just one of the ways Studio Graft translated these tactile elements onto elegant and functional experiences in Ottolenghi’s online word.
