Taste the Place

Branding a Culinary County

When it comes to cuisine, Leicestershire strikes a great balance between multicultural variety and traditional local fare. It’s also a haven for conscientious diners, being the birthplace of veganism and offering a plethora of sustainable eating options. We developed a campaign brand around Leicestershire’s culinary scene to unify the rural and urban parts of the county and bring visitors to the area.

Briefed on the brand mark

A Traditional Taste of England explored traditional food and drink made or consumed in Leicestershire. It includes pork pies, cheeses, ales and ciders made in the area but also promoted traditional pubs, coaching inns, and venues where afternoon tea could be enjoyed.

There were four key themes to this campaign:

A Taste of England explored traditional food and drink made or consumed in Leicestershire. It includes pork pies, cheeses, ales and ciders made in the area but also promoted traditional pubs, coaching inns, and venues where afternoon tea could be enjoyed.

The World on a Plate focused on Leicestershire’s international food scene and the communities involved, exploring Leicester’s multiculturalism. Many migrants have settled in the area from across the world, bringing their distinctive cuisine with them. 

Food for Thought was a theme examining environmentally sustainable food consumption that reduces food miles, supports sustainable agri farming and promotes a “farm to fork” approach.

The Home of Veganism was a major consideration as more people are switching to a plant-based diet. Leicester is consistently in the top 10 UK vegan cities and is where veganism was first named by Donald Watson in the 1940s.

Each of these themes would become a dedicated sub-brand of Taste the Place, so they could be promoted to a receptive audience while raising the profile of the whole initiative.

Examples of round food logos
Colourful product packaging with cool fonts and designs

Method:

Stage 1

We started out with broad strokes, putting together moodboards to capture the feel of both fine dining and Leicestershire.

Stamp of Authenticity
The first route was of a stamp of authenticity, implying community and belonging to a club. It’s a seal of approval, implying that everything had been certified.

Food Labels
The next visual inspiration was food labels. Modern packaging and labels have come a long way and can be beautiful in their own right. They use complementary colours, bespoke fonts and striking design motifs.

Location
We also thought location could be a strong theme. We’re essentially creating a food map or trail to guide people to and through the county. It encapsulated the idea of a food adventure and it being about the experience.

Take a Bite
Taking a bite out of the text or image was another visual motif that could have an appetising effect on the audience.

Foody map examples
Branding samples featuring feed in word shapes and bites takes out of words

Stage 2

The stamp and location elements were chosen to progress with.

We began refining the font and incorporated the stamp face into the circular shape of a map marker.

The visual style would extend to location so that restaurants taking part could be promoted and passing customers would see they were part of the initiative with recognisable icons.
We also considered a photographic style that was versatile enough to display elements of location, veganism, conscientious eating, tradition and multiculturalism, as well as delicious food. There were a lot of plates to spin.

Stage 3

We now had a complete understanding of what the stakeholders had in mind and developed a final cohesive brand and sub-brands unfolded across different media. These included social, digital, print, out of home and web formats. Sample maps were also drawn up.

The brief was to include Leicester and Leicestershire in the logo, a difficult requirement to achieve with such a small icon. We managed to include both the city and county without overloading the design. Taste the Place takes central focus, but at a glance you can tell it’s a Leicester and Leicestershire offering.

The four key themes became sub-brands beneath the Taste the Place umbrella. The main logo fits in any of these brand colours so that each applicable audience could tell immediately that, for example, “It’s part of Taste the Place and serves vegan food,” etc.

Taste the Place the world on a plate advertised on social media
Taste the Place home of veganism poster outdoors
Taste the place map icons showing different food locations
A map of Leicestershire with map markers showing places to eat in nearby towns

Outcome

The clients were thrilled with the new branding and rolled out Taste the Place in March 2023. Many outlets have reported on the launch and it’s had the desired outcome, sparking a conversation about Leicestershire’s place among the UK’s finest food destinations.