Strategic branding agency Creative Spark has rebranded and repositioned Manchester-born Blendsmiths, the alternative drink company.
Following the recent launch of Blendsmiths in Selfridges food halls, the new brand is on track to disrupt the traditional hot drinks market and support the company’s ambitious expansion strategy.
Creative Spark worked closely with the founders of Blendsmiths Ryan Moore and Chris Farnworth to ensure the spirit of the five-year-old company was not lost in their brand evolution. As the product moves from purely wholesale and into retail environments, the brand has to work hard to be seen, and Creative Spark was challenged with maintaining the energy and originality of Blendsmiths but bringing a new vibrancy that enabled it to pop out on shop shelves.
The new Blendsmiths brand showcases the health benefits taken from nature via visual language of ingredient-led graphics that evoke the feeling of invigoration. Creative Spark channelled the alternative spirit of Blendsmiths and its unexpected flavour combinations by creating a visual identity with beautifully crafted graphics and palette of clashing colours.
Creative Spark founder and creative director Neil Marra said: “It has been an absolute joy to work on the rebrand of Blendsmiths. Ryan and Chris have built their company from humble beginnings to bring innovative, healthy alternative drinks to the people. We have brought that bravery and innovation into the brand by combining clashing colours and beautifully crafted graphics that represent their story. We hope we represent the company’s authenticity and ethical values throughout their new identity and enable them to go from strength to strength in the retail sector.”
Blendsmiths founder & MD Ryan Moore added: “As we turn five years old we are now focussing on the direct to premium consumer market and we needed to rebrand our evolving product range. Chris and I are lifelong friends who started creating blends in his garage, so Blendsmiths is very personal to the tight team who run it. Bringing an agency in to reposition and rebrand us felt very impersonal, but Creative Spark have become an extension of our team and our creative partner. We will continue to work alongside them to make Blendsmiths a household name. We are so proud of our vibrant and beautiful brand in Selfridges and look forward to more food halls bringing on Blendsmiths to share with the world.”
Blendsmiths new brand and packaging design is used on 1kg and 2kg and smaller 250g boxes. It is also used across marketing collateral such as brand merchandise, exhibition stands, shipping boxes, social advert, business cards, social adverts and window vinyls.
