Kuudes redesigns premium meal providers for a post-pandemic era

Anton&Anton is a Finnish food company that has gained significant recognition for its ready-made meals. They've become a popular choice for busy individuals and families seeking convenient yet good-quality food options.

Unlike typical providers of ready meals, Anton&Anton prioritises using fresh, high-end ingredients and crafting meals with a focus on taste and flavour. The company is also committed to sustainability, striving to reduce its environmental impact through practices like using eco-friendly packaging and sourcing sustainable ingredients.

Originally established in 2008 as a boutique grocery store, Anton&Anton has now started to position itself as a soulful alternative to large supermarket chains. And they've been working with Kuudes, a creative business design agency based in Helsinki and Stockholm, to drive that new vision forward.

The brief

Piëtke Visser, creative director at Kuudes, based in Helsinki, outlines the problem. "This cherished brand, boasting a loyal fan base in Southern Helsinki and exceptionally tasty products, faced challenges in sustaining its brick-and-mortar stores and home delivery service," she explains.

Anton&Anton then made the strategic decision to shut down its boutique stores and proprietary home delivery service, shifting focus entirely to the burgeoning convenience food sector.

"The market dynamics had shifted significantly during the pandemic," explains Piëtke. "This necessitated a careful strategy to carve out a new market position that would enable Anton&Anton to thrive beyond the capital area, where brand recognition was minimal. "

Research and strategy

Their research showed that the pandemic had already reshaped the ready-made meal market, with more people eating at home and restaurants starting to produce their own products for retail. As competition intensified and consumers became more discerning, that meant Kuudes would have to position the brand carefully.

"Our consumer insight team played a key role in identifying crucial target groups," says Piëtke. "One valuable insight we gained was the opportunity for a new type of ready-made meal category: one made from high-quality ingredients without being positioned too premium. Products are clearly designed for mass distribution but still maintain authenticity compared to industrially produced convenience food products."

The result was to recalibrate the pricing strategy to slightly lower price points, impacting the overall brand positioning.

"Seizing the opportunity, we embarked on a journey to first redesign their commercial concept and then rebrand Anton&Anton to align with their new strategic direction," says Piëtke. "We had to ensure that the new identity communicated authenticity, fresh ingredients, high quality and deliciousness without positioning it as a premium brand. Fortunately, Anton&Anton was not so widely known outside the Helsinki Metropolitan area, allowing us to introduce the brand to many without pre-existing perceptions."

Brand concept

So how did Kuudes balance retaining the brand's soulful, boutique essence while shifting it towards convenience food? "That was the real challenge," says Piëtke. "How to communicate the charm of the former boutiques, the atmosphere, and the quality it represented, on a set of tiny packages."

The original boutiques were designed to be minimalist, offering a black and white backdrop for high-quality, mostly organic nearby foods. "Stepping into the spaces, you would be met with an ocean of colour," she recalls. "Intense red tomatoes, beautiful yellow chanterelles, and deep delicious leafy greens. We scaled this down to a set of packages that bang with intense, delicious natural colour."

Consequently, a rich, saturated, and irresistible colour palette is the cornerstone of the Anton&Anton rebranding. As Piëtke puts it: "Satisfying experiences and good food go hand in hand with colour. The objective of the visual language was to appeal to the hidden foodie in every consumer."

Colour strategy

Piëtke outlines how they determined the colour palette. "We believe delicious food is something everybody can relate to," she begins. The starting point of food enjoyment is how it looks: delicious colour suggests satisfying flavour. So each pack was given a rich base colour, representing one of the ingredients in the meal, keeping in mind how these colours would look next to one another."

The contemporary yet crafted packaging suggests that even a quick, ready-made meal could be delicious. Each meal offering has been carefully paired with a distinct base colour and illustration to communicate the ingredients at a glance.

The illustrations for each meal are playful and "rough around the edges", as Piëtke puts it. "Working with raw food ingredients can be messy," she explains. "As these meals are handmade, the wholesome illustration style was chosen to communicate a carefree and fun approach to food, the kind you would imagine in an ideal home kitchen.

Logo and typography

The Anton&Anton logotype was the only brand element retained in this rebranding project, and for good reason. "It has a strong and elegant presence that offers a perfect counterbalance for the rougher illustration style," says Piëtke.

The name and logo, Anton&Anton, needed to be impactful and visible at a distance. Instead of settling for a small, discreet logo placement, Kuudes scaled it up, spreading it from one pack to the next. "The result would be that when you stand in front of the shelves, it would be hard to miss Anton & Anton & Anton & Anton," notes Piëtke.

Overall, the identity's new positioning has been achieved through a combination of rich colours, sympathetically illustrated ingredients and a stylish logotype that creates a pleasant contrast with the overall design. "In addition to the visual identity, we also focused on verbal communication to find the right tone: maintaining the essence of a small-sized business where people are passionate about high-quality, locally sourced food made with delicious seasonal ingredients."