Happy Olive Tree Nortasun Diseinua

Press Kit

Unique Properties

50 per cent of Australians are of overseas ethnicity, leading to a demand for organic food, which is a cultural staple for many. Despite the growth of the organic market, its products often feature dull packaging that fails to reflect the vibrant and nutritious food they contain. When Happy Olive Tree decided to rebrand with its own product range, a modular brand identity system called Happy Salads was created, incorporating colours and shapes from organic foods to make the packaging as joyful as the products themselves.

Dimensions & Packaging

The team was hired to deliver the following scope of work:

Brand Strategy
New Logo Design
Brand Identity Design
Identity System
Brand Guideline
Packaging Design System (For sealed polypack)

Tags

Brand identity, Organic food, Packaging, Rebranding, Identity system, Graphic elements, Modular, Food

Production Technology

The design team conducted a thorough audit of shelf displays and existing Happy Olive Tree materials, identifying that most organic food brands rely on muted colour schemes for their messaging. To gain deeper insights into consumer behaviour, the team visited supermarkets and local bazaars catering to farm-to-table businesses. Observations revealed that colour and fragrance significantly influence purchasing decisions. This growing farm-to-table movement inspired the development of raw, organic visual elements, which were later combined to form the dynamic Happy Salads system.

Design Challenge

The research for Happy Olive Tree's rebranding faced several key challenges:

Consumer Behaviour Insights:
Observing purchasing decisions in real-world settings, such as grocery stores and local bazaars, required time and careful analysis. Identifying patterns, such as the influence of colour and fragrance, was essential but challenging due to the variability in consumer behaviour across different demographics and market conditions.

Market Saturation with Similar Products:
Many organic food brands rely on similar muted colour schemes, making it difficult to pinpoint unique differentiators. This necessitated extensive auditing of shelf spaces and packaging trends to find opportunities for innovation without straying too far from consumer expectations.

Cultural Relevance and Diversity:
Designing a brand identity that resonates with Australia's multicultural population required balancing vibrant, playful visuals with cultural sensitivity. Understanding diverse consumer preferences added complexity to the creative process.

Integration Across Media Platforms:
Creating a modular design system like Happy Salads that functions seamlessly across various media formats required significant iteration. The challenge was ensuring that the visual elements remained adaptable and engaging without compromising consistency across digital, print, and in-store experiences.

Capturing the Farm-to-Table Aesthetic:
Translating the essence of the farm-to-table movement into visual elements that feel raw and organic, yet polished for commercial packaging, posed an aesthetic challenge. The team had to blend authenticity with creativity to create a design system that is both evocative and market-ready.
These challenges were addressed through iterative design processes, consumer observation, and flexibility in creative execution, ultimately leading to a rebrand that aligns with both market trends and the brand's organic ethos.

Research

This study examines the rebranding of Happy Olive Tree, focusing on how visual identity can align with consumer behavior and cultural trends. An audit of the brand’s previous materials and retail shelf spaces revealed that many organic food brands rely on muted color palettes, failing to convey the vibrancy of their products. Site visits to grocery stores and local bazaars highlighted the significant influence of color and fragrance on consumer decisions, especially within the growing farm-to-table movement.

Inspired by these insights, the design team developed a modular brand identity system called Happy Salads, which draws from the natural colors and textures of organic ingredients. This system allows elements to be mixed and matched, generating versatile and engaging packaging designs across various media formats. The rebranding aims to differentiate Happy Olive Tree from competitors by reinvigorating its product range with joyful, dynamic visuals that resonate with multicultural consumers in Australia, where 50 percent of the population has overseas heritage.

The result is a cohesive identity that communicates freshness and fun, reflecting the richness of organic foods while appealing to evolving market trends and consumer preferences.

Inspiration

Nature's Abundance is abundant in color. The design team created a new colour palette, drawing inspiration from various food items to reflect the natural richness of organic ingredients. To further enhance the brand’s playful and engaging approach to organic food, they introduced a dynamic and modular brand element system known as the Happy Salads. This system allows for mixing and matching elements, much like creating a favourite salad, offering endless possibilities across a diverse and evolving media landscape. Leveraging the Happy Salads concept, the team developed a cohesive brand identity and packaging system that reintroduces fun and colour into healthy, organic foods.

Project Duration

This project spanned over a period of 5 months, from August 2023 to January 2024. New brand identity was first published in August 2024.

Happy Olive Tree is an Australian based company which worked with Dotbirth in Bangladesh to create their new brand identity.

Operation Flow

The language that was created using the Happy Salads allow the brand to communicate colourfully, differentiating it from other brands in the market. This graphic device is so extendable and pervasive that it can be used as containers for texts, and frames for imagery, and decor for recall, allowing it to work across multiple media. The variations of Happy Salads are endless as the system is a manually generative and is only limited to the arrangement of the designer's imagination.