Brand new pies!

I had a brief trip to Westpoint in Exeter today to visit the Taste of the West Trade Show. One of our clients - G Free - was exhibiting at the show and taking the opportunity to unveil their new range of products to industry buyers. G Free are a specialist bakery, producing a range of wheat and gluten free product. We have been working with them to create a brand for their new range of speciality pies. They began working with us because they want to make their products appeal to a wider audience. Our work has included creating a name for the brand and developing packaging designs. We look forward to revealing more when the brand is launched to the public!

If you would like to see some more examples of how we help our clients achieve their objectives, visit www.alderandalder.co.uk

Dinner at Dartington

I had the opportunity to listen to some really inspirational presentations recently. I was at a Sustainability Networking Dinner at Dartington Hall and there was a very impressive list of speakers. There was a lot of thought provoking stuff about the challenges we face - from people who understand them; Charlie McConnell, Director of Sustainability at Dartington; Simon Hooton, Director of Strategy at South West Regional Development Agency; Guy Watson, founder of Riverford Organic Vegetables. But the one that stuck out for me was Gunter Pauli.

Gunter was at Dartington for the week, leading a course at Schumacher College. He's head of the Zeri Foundation, which is a collection of great minds looking for solutions to the challenges we face. But he's been involved in a lot of other things too throughout his career, including launching Ecover, the pioneer of environmentally friendly cleaning products. I wish I could remember more of what he said because it was really interesting stuff, but the one thing that has stayed with me was this: Change always happens on the periphery, not at the centre.

So for anyone who feels isolated or separated from what's going on - it doesn't matter. Whether you feel you're on the edge of things because of size or geographical location - it doesn't matter. That's where things will happen. And who knows, it could be you that makes them happen.

Ray of sunshine?

After a week of sunshine there's no doubting that spring's here - and it makes such a difference to how you feel. And it's not just me, several people I spoke to this week agreed that a bit of sunshine does give you a different - more optimistic - perspective. But there's no avoiding the harsh reality of the economic situation, the evidence is all around us, and we probably haven't seen the worst of it yet, certainly not down here in the South West.

So is it really a ray of sunshine, or just the last flicker of a dying flame? Well, in our experience so far this year, there are a lot of positive things going on. We have had a busy time in this first quarter, and all of the businesses we have been talking to are looking at new opportunities - new products, new services, new initiatives (see the previous post). No-one has come to us looking for a miracle cure to breath life into a failing business. I'm sure they're out there - talking to someone else. But it is really encouraging when the people you meet are full of optimism.

I think one of the reasons we have had a positive start to the year has been that we took a fresh look at what we do and how we do it about 9 months ago. We've made various changes to what we do, in lots of areas of our business, and it has led to lots of exciting opportunities and ideas. This blog is one example of that - and as other ideas come to fruition I'm looking forward to talking about them here.

So when I look out the window and see the sun shining I do feel optimistic - and I'm always looking for other businesses that feel the same way; whether they're clients or partners. If you would like to see some examples of what we've been doing with these optimistic businesses, take a look at our website: www.alderandalder.co.uk

Packaging for award-winning organic farm

Today's been an exciting day, as I had the opportunity to go and take a look at some packaging we've designed in Waitrose! We've been working with an award-winning organic farm in Devon, Higher Fingle Farm. Last year Nevil and Rona at Higher Fingle won the title of 'Food Champion of the Year' in a competition run by Country Living Magazine and Waitrose supermarket. As part of their prize their products are being stocked in local Waitrose stores, at Sidmouth and Okehampton, so as I was passing Sidmouth today I took the opportunity to go and take a look!



Higher Fingle Farm produce organic poultry and duck eggs. They approached us last year to work with them to create a brand for Higher Fingle Farm, to help them exploit the opportunity that the award win had presented. Our brief was to develop an identity which would include the packaging for their duck meat and eggs, and could be applied to their website, so that they can build the profile of the Higher Fingle Farm brand.

A brand should reflect the personality of a business - what it is that makes it different - and a farm is no different. At Higher Fingle Farm it's all about family, because it's not just Nevil and Rona that are involved, but all five of the children too! So we took this as the foundation for the visual identity, from the look of the logo, to the strapline we created: A family farm in Devon.



Elsa is the eldest of the children, and was instrumental in winning the 'Food Champion of the Year' award. It was her idea to start selling the duck eggs, so Elsa's Organic Duck Eggs was born, making Elsa - as a 10 year old - the youngest supplier to a UK supermarket! Elsa's Organic Duck Eggs is a sub-brand of Higher Fingle Farm, so we wanted to create an identity that had it's own personality, but visually was clearly related to the parent, to help raise the profile and increase recognition.



Nevil and Rona have been farming - very successfully - since 2001, but selling their produce directly through a supermarket is a new experience, with new challenges. They recognised the importance of creating a brand, to raise their profile and create loyalty in their target market.

Rona says, "We are very pleased with our new identity. It is clean, bright and different. We have been able to use it in many ways... and hopefully it will mean our business can compete with the other products on the shelf. It was great to use a friendly, local business, that had a genuine interest in our products and what we are trying to achieve."

With sales of organic products dropping it's a challenging time, but Waitrose may be better placed to face that challenge, as a survey by BBC's Watchdog found they were the UK's favourite supermarket with 21% of the vote, ahead of Sainsbury's and Tesco. You can find Higher Fingle Farm organic duck eggs in Waitrose at Sidmouth and Okehampton, or you can visit the Higher Fingle Farm website and buy online.

If you would like to see some examples of other logos and brand development work, take a look at our website: www.alderandalder.co.uk.