Ragged Edge fries up a brand identity for London's first gourmet crisps restaurant

Delivering the brand positioning and strategy alongside a visual and verbal identity, the agency then brought the brand to life through packaging and signage, helping the trailblazing new eatery achieve stand-out in the capital's ultra-competitive food scene.

Hipchips is the first of its kind. It cooks crisps on site using unusual heritage potato varieties and pairs them with an innovative range of fresh dips, from Peruvian Ceviche right through to Salted Caramel. Customers can dine in with a beer, or take them away in sharing boxes.

Ragged Edge’s brand strategy was designed to allow the restaurant to transform Britain’s best-loved snack from a predictable staple into a gourmet shared food experience. The brand idea – ‘Fresh Traditions’ – brought this to life by playfully reinterpreting British rituals, design and food for a millennial audience.

The visual identity references the origins of crisps – which first rose to popularity in the 1830s – by using two traditional British typefaces: Thorowgood Sans and Kings Caslon. But while the choice of typefaces references tradition, their treatment is unmistakably contemporary.

The colour palette features a classic red, combined with a very modern set of supporting colours. Iconography includes a traditional British pinstripe given a 45-degree twist. And instead of packets, the crisps are served up in a variety of eye-catching sharing boxes. Tone of voice is unquestionably British, but not afraid to tell it like it is. Personality is conveyed via messages such as ‘Dip for victory’ and ‘One does not double dip’.

Max Ottignon, Co-Founder, Ragged Edge, said: “Britain makes its way through six billion packets of crisps a year, that’s 150 packets a person. There was obviously a big opportunity here, but innovation had been pretty limited. By reinventing crisps as a gourmet sharing experience, we were confident we could tap into a millennial audience, hungry for new rituals and Instagram-worthy moments.

"We believed that by building an experience into every element of the brand, we could give Hipchips real cut through. The end result is a disruptive, premium brand with substance derived from its powerful quality story."

The flagship Hipchips restaurant opened this month at 49 Old Compton Street, Soho.