Imperfect Foods delivers groceries on a mission to eliminate food waste and build a better food system for everyone.
A dynamic set of guidelines that ensure cohesion and authenticity across internal and external teams.
Lead Designer: Sara Utz
Art Director: Irene Goddard
Head of Photography: John Bedell
Senior Designer: Tegan Harmonay
Senior Copywriter: Meghan Proulx
Much like a house needs a solid foundation, a brand needs guidelines to serve as the foundation for all creative.
When I joined the Imperfect Foods team in 2021, I found inconsistent guidelines across various teams. These inconsistencies led to conflicting messages and visuals in print and digital products. Too often I would hear things like: Should call-to-actions be all caps or sentence case? How many googly eyes are *too* many googly eyes? What's the hex color code for our purple?
So, working with Brand and Creative partners, I created one place to define all of Imperfect's guidelines.
The guidelines were divided into three sections—Our Brand, Our Visuals, and Our Content.
Unlike a traditional, static brand book PDF, these guidelines were assembled in Figma. You may be wondering—why Figma? The guidelines connected to our design system components, so they are automatically updated with any Product or Marketing changes. Plus, using a dynamic document allows easy edits while still shared with internal and external partners.
These brand guidelines ensure Imperfect Foods is presented clearly and consistently. By adhering to these guidelines, internal and external partners can promote Imperfect to stand out from competitors and remain memorable in the minds of customers.
With these brand guidelines, I achieved four goals:
Created Consistency: We provide the same, defined expectations for high-quality content to our internal teams, contractors, agencies, and partners.
Built Brand Recognition: A strong visual identity across our content improves brand awareness. And a recognizable brand is a lot easier sell at the top of the funnel.
Established Trust & Set Expectations: With consistent messaging at every touchpoint, our customers know who we are, what we offer, and exactly what sets us apart from others.
Increased Revenue: An in-depth study found brand consistency increases revenue by an average of 23%. Holy guacamole!
