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 design a rebrand that would retain the love of their loyal customer base, while reigniting their 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 for 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 and more real approach. This defiance needed to be reflected in the new brand identity to stand out in an oversaturated market. The rebrand centred on the strategy "Food from the Heart," aiming to amplify the brand's personality and bring back the counter-culture attitude that inspired the original heart logo.

The visual identity began with the redesign of their iconic heart in collaboration with illustrator Jake Foreman who added a custom stipple and gritty texture. By decoupling the heart and the script, it unlocked flexibility and created distinction. Also working with Jake Foreman, a suite of personality rich illustrations were developed to act as storytelling pieces and functional devices that could be used across all brand applications. Working with copywriter Cat Wall, the verbal identity unified the brand by balancing the empathetic caregiver tone with the charmingly rebellious attitude of the founders.

The rebrand extended to all brand touchpoints including photography and video, packaging and the digital experience. A brand photoshoot captured the authentic messiness of dinner-time chaos thus bringing to life the inspiration of the brand’s origins—to bring joy back to family dinner-time. Accompanying videography highlighted the brand’s unique positioning as a ready-to-heat frozen meal service, guided by the new key brand line "Heat Up. Feet Up. Eat Up.".

The rebranding effectively broke stigmas around frozen meals and countered the industry's ‟mumsy” tropes. The Dinner Ladies provided their audience with a straightforward dinnertime solution, offering peace of mind and relief from dinner-time stress to customers, particularly parents. The revamped identity celebrated the brand's rich history and rebellious attitude while positioning it for future growth and broader market appeal. The new visual and verbal identity resonated with existing loyal customers and attracted new ones by offering a reliable and comforting meal solution. The rebrand has successfully reignited the brand essence of "Food from the Heart," equipping The Dinner Ladies with a strong, unified identity to scale and become a household name in Australia.