Development of a brand book for the manufacturer of fish products "Santa Maria". How to become a 4th grade ichthyologist in 1.5 months

We have extensive experience working with food companies. Among them stands one of the most important "fish giants" of Russia - a wonderful company with a poetic name "Santa Maria".

The customer is a manufacturer of canned fish from various types, which offers its customers a wide range of more than 230 items. This fish is caught in the Siberian rivers, so it absorbed all the nutrient power of Russian nature.

We were given a responsible task – to maintain brand awareness, but at the same time to “modernize” it as much as possible.

A whole team of designers works on each project in our studio. So it was this time, so a few days later we presented the customer with 2 concepts of logo redesign and corporate identity. The first concept was as neutral as possible – we refreshed the logo a bit, retaining its usual appearance. In the second concept, our designers allowed themselves to be creative – the logo underwent more radical changes, and the corporate identity was supplemented with an unusual pattern in the form of stylized fish scales. 

The customer predictably chose the first version of the trademark, which does not shock the fans of the brand with its changes. But the developed pattern from the second “bold” concept fell to the liking of the entire team of “Santa Maria”. So we combined the two ideas into a single concept and started developing a brandbook. The client liked the “fish” pattern so much that in the middle of the project, a photo of the company’s office with a volumetric pattern of scales all over the wall came to our work chat. 

It was not without curious situations. When selecting one of the images, our designers made a funny mistake: they confused sea fish with river fish.

Fortunately, our creative director's keen eye noticed this oversight. The founder of our company, a desperate fisherman since childhood, gladly gave us an educational program on the differences between silver carp and gold carp and gusters from a scumbag!

For the brandbook of this manufacturer of canned fish, we chose the font Montserrat. Its distinctive feature is maximum legibility and readability. This is exactly what is required for small texts on a fish can.

In addition to standard carriers of corporate identity, such as forms or souvenirs, we faced the most important task of updating the design of the packaging. Hundreds of thousands of cans of fish delicacies were waiting for their new stickers in the updated brand identity.

The customer’s request was both simple and complex: to cause the adult target audience nostalgia for the quality of GOST canned goods of Soviet times, but at the same time to make the packaging modern and attractive for young connoisseurs of the brand. So we decided to stick to the minimalism of removing photos of fish and vegetables, leaving only the bright color and name of the product.

It turned out so appetizing that our designers felt like cats purring happily in a fish restaurant - the brand's range is truly royal!

No wonder in the positioning of the company appeared such concepts as “Affordable luxury” and “Culinary traditions of Siberia”.

Due to the fact that the company uses innovative equipment to preserve the quality of raw materials, we used in the brandbook for this manufacturer of canned fish bold unique offer: "Try the freshness of the Siberian rivers!".