Building a Cohesive Brand Identity and Digital Presence
Nature & FreshOverview
Nature & Fresh is a local organic brand specializing in spray-free farming to grow premium macadamia nuts in New Zealand. My role was to help the brand launch its physical products and online store, focusing on art direction, brand identity, wireframing, prototyping, visual design, and front-end development.
The goal was to elevate the brand’s market presence, boost product sales, and foster trust and credibility through a cohesive and engaging visual identity.
Deliverables
Branding & Identity Design
Packaging Design & Production
Video production
User Experience Design
User Interface Design
The Challenge
Nature & Fresh needed a refreshed brand identity and an online presence to distinguish itself in the crowded organic snack market. The objectives included:
Redesigning packaging to reflect the brand’s organic and ethical values.
Establishing an online store to enhance accessibility and reach.
Creating a cohesive end-to-end experience that delights customers and builds trust.
Discovery
To understand the brand’s philosophy, I visited Mark’s organic farm, gaining insight into the effort required to achieve organic certification. This understanding helped craft a brand story that emphasized trust, authenticity, and transparency, key factors in appealing to the modern conscious consumer.
Studies showed that 94% of consumers are more loyal to brands committed to transparency, and nearly 40% actively seek new brands offering this value. To align with these insights, we highlighted product origins and documented the production process to showcase authenticity and build credibility.
Brand strategy
During stakeholder alignment sessions, we defined three core brand attributes: organic, ethical, and honest. These values guided the visual and emotional aspects of the brand’s identity and ensured its distinction in the competitive snack food industry.
Brand Identity
The original logo lacked memorability and impact. After sketching and refining concepts, we tested two logo designs with diverse user groups, measuring metrics such as:
Appeal
Ease of Identification
Purchase Motivation
Relevance and Uniqueness
80% of users preferred the selected logo, finding it more appealing and aligned with the brand’s values.
Packaging Design
To ensure freshness and premium quality, we introduced resealable packaging. Key design elements included:
Hand-drawn illustrations, earth-tone color palettes, and the product backstory to reinforce the organic theme.
Velvet coatings and an organic certification badge to appeal to customers seeking high-quality or gift-worthy products.
The final design achieved a strong shelf presence while maintaining an authentic, organic feel.
Online Store
Following the packaging refresh, we designed an online store to extend Nature & Fresh’s brand identity to the digital space. A customer journey map was created to identify pain points and actionable opportunities. Key goals included:
Building emotional connections with users.
Simplifying the purchasing experience.
Creating an end-to-end journey that delights and earns customer trust.
Showcasing the Brand
I produced a video highlighting the organic farming lifestyle, featuring animals, harvesting, and production processes. This created an emotional connection, aligning the brand with its core values of sustainability and authenticity.
Wireframing
Paper wireframes were created in Sketch and developed into interactive prototypes in InVision. These helped validate assumptions and refine solutions.
Front-End Development
Additional touches of component transitioning created an added layer of polish to direct user attention and enhance the overall user experience.
During the last stage of the development process, I used my background in the front-end and collaborated with the developer to contribute to the front-end coding, making sure the design is fully translated onto the front-end and uniformed across browsers, tablets and mobile screens responsively.
Test, Iterate, Launch
Final designs were built in WordPress and integrated with WooCommerce. The CMS allowed for easy product management, promotions, and customizations. Responsive design and micro-interactions added delight and maintained a cohesive user experience.
The refreshed brand identity successfully told a cohesive story across packaging, digital platforms, and video content. Customers responded positively to the new design, with the online store driving increased engagement and expanding Nature & Fresh’s market presence.
The project emphasized authentic storytelling, premium design, and seamless functionality, establishing a strong foundation for future growth.
