Fresh Restaurant Brand with an Old Idea
A Georgia-based company contacted Gerardot & Co to brand a new restaurant concept they planned to open throughout Florida and Georgia.
It may have seemed like a new restaurant concept at first, but the more we thought about it, the concept really came from an old idea — Offer the freshest, slow-cooked meats served on homemade, whole-grain breads. Bake pies (like Grandma used to) with fresh fruit picked from the orchard. And serve fresh salads and vegetables plucked right from the garden. The “new” twist of this restaruant brand concept would be to offer all this fresh homemade goodness in a convenient, “fast-casual” restaurant setting.
Developing a new brand from scratch (especially a food or restaurant brand) is exactly the kind of creative branding project we love to sink our teeth into. And as we do with all branding projects, we set out to research the market, the history of the company and the competition. We needed to create a niche—something unique to set this restaurant apart from all the other choices that consumers have and provide them with something that was missing.
We soon learned that, the Jones Company, (the company behind all of this) started in the grocery business back in the 1952 in Folkston, Georgia. So buying fresh food grown by local farmers, and serving it with neighborly hospitality wasn’t a new idea at all — it was in the very DNA of the company.
We also uncovered that one of the sites for the new restaurant chain was located just up the road from the first grain elevators in Georgia. Fresh-baked breads made daily from whole-grain flower was to be big part of this restaurant, so we pitched a name for the restaurant brand that we just couldn’t shake from our minds, and luckily, “ The Grainery Cafe & Bakehouse” was an instant hit.
So we collaborated with one of our favorite creative writers (Ben Seal) to help us flesh out the story of The Grainery. Ben helped us give the restaurant brand a voice and a heart, while we gave the brand and the entire look of the restaurant a face.
The brand identity design for The Grainery uses a classic “old-school” wood cut illustration of a grain scoop. We also developed a series of illustrations of various grains, including wheat, barley and oats.
Gerardot also worked closely with Leech Hensley Architects in Indianapolis, to design retail fixtures and restaurant signage, including all point-of-sale, menu systems and exterior signage.
