Description:

The Dinner Ladies are a Sydney-based frozen meal delivery service serving ‘freezer filler’ comfort meals. Over their 17 year history, the brand had become diluted and their punchy, counter-‟mumsy” attitude was lost to category cliches and same-same messaging.

The challenge was to develop a rebrand that would retain the love of their loyal customer base, while reigniting their original brand essence of ‟Food from the Heart.” The goal was to embrace their rich history with a contemporary look, create a unified identity, broaden their audience, and set the brand up to establish themselves as a nationwide household name as the go-to dinner-time solutions for busy Australians.

The idea was built around the brand's unique counter-culture attitude. The founders, Sophie and Katherine, had always rejected the traditional way of speaking to parents, and in particular mums, opting for a bolder approach. This was particularly evident in their past brand illustrations which reflected a "Sailor Jerry" aesthetic. Illustration had always been a major piece of The Dinner Ladies’ brand so we felt it crucial to bring it across to the new look.

The original illustrations' punk and rough-around-the-edges flair drew us to references of traditional trad tattoos. Collaborating with illustrator Jake Foreman, we crafted a suite of illustrations that served as both personality-rich storytelling pieces and functional devices. While the small scenes and spots speak to specific offerings of the brand, the hero illustration speaks to the love behind every Dinner Ladies dish and the comforting shared experiences created around the table. These illustrations are supported by our suite of type-furniture elements that not only support the main design elements but add character to any layout.

By injecting wit and humour into the identity, the illustrations help The Dinner Ladies combat the stigmas around frozen meals and counters the ‘mumsy’ approach of many of its competitors. They add a level of distinctiveness to the brand and amplify its bold voice in reminding customers, and particularly parents, that when life gets in the way they need just heat up, feet up, eat up.