Description:

When it comes to plant-based meal delivery, there’s a monotonous swathe of earthy tones and lentils sitting in lettuce leaves. Not IKU though.

IKU is Sydney’s first plant-based eatery. They came to us in search of a brand identity that would set them apart in the direct-to-consumer space, while staying true to the roots they put down in their Sydney storefront almost 40 years ago.

It began with strategy. Research shows that switching to a plant-based diet is the single most powerful thing you can do for your health and the planet. As more and more Gen Z and Millennial people work toward aligning their values with their purchasing decisions, we’ve seen a huge boom in popularity for plant-based products.

Alongside our strategic partners, we established a sustainable competitive advantage that would avoid the category’s obsession with “easy” and “healthy” and own the emotional highground of how a mouthwatering meal can genuinely help the planet. The idea? Eat your world better.

Everything IKU does — from the food they make to the way they run their business — is about keeping things in balance. Each meal they sell is balanced with a charitable donation. To balance out their production impact and minimise waste, all of their packaging is as recyclable and compostable as (currently) possible. It made sense for the visual identity to speak to something so inherent to the way they operate.

Each letter of the custom wordmark is perfectly balanced and sits vertically as a nod to their Japanese name. The stacked bowls reference the nutritionally-balanced meals they create, while complementing the wordmark and also giving the brand a flexible visual element to be used as a graphic or image container.

In a category that’s quite literally greenwashed, the colour palette and photographic art direction is a deliberate divergence from the muted, natural, green tones the audience has come to expect from plant-based brands. It feels delicious, exciting and celebrates the colours of some of IKU’s favourite ingredients.

Since the brand’s launch in August 2021, IKU have seen proven resonance with their target audience of Millennials and Gen Z. They’ve seen strong month-on-month sales growth, above average conversion rate and retention, with 60% of IKU customers choosing to come back and shop again (that’s more than double the industry average).

The rebrand also helped IKU gain coverage in some of Australia’s most prominent urban publications like Broadsheet, The Daily Telegraph and 9 Honey, reaching a total of just under 14M people in under 12 months.