I had the great pleasure of working with Mary Regan and her sisters Helen and Ger who run Regan Organic Farm in Dranagh, Co. Wexford, along with Mary’s husband David. some time ago.
I had first met the Regans at Enniscorthy Farmers Market. This is a wonderful market in the town where many now famous Wexford food brands got their start – including O’Neill’s Dry Cure Bacon and Killowen Yoghurt. So I had been buying and enjoying their chickens years before getting the opportunity to consult on their marketing.
Part of the work I did for Regan Organic Farm was on their brand identity.
I took the team through my process to analyse the business and identify the benefits that can be offered to customers, giving us the value proposition and the brand values. We workshopped the target market to create a profile for their primary audience too – this gave us someone to hold in our minds when developing a design brief and reviewing visuals. The positioning was about being authentically natural as well as premium quality.
When developing the design brief, I suggested commissioning original watercolour artwork by a Wexford artist Anne McLeod.
There are a few reasons for this:
- Stand out – if you use original artwork rather than a stock illustration, your brand identity is not going to look the same as your competitors’
- Reinforce values – investing in a genuine artist shows that the brand is more likely to deliver quality. Selecting a Wexford based artist also demonstrates dedication to local which is a plus for this brand’s target market too. The brief to Anne was to depict the wild plants that Regan Organic Farm chickens actually get to eat. There is a story here that is important about the difference in feed and freedom of movement between their animals and factory-farmed or even “free range light” versions.
- Aesthetics – we got some really beautiful art back from Anne that we were able to split up and re-purpose. In my view it is hugely important that a brand is beautiful to look at – this is, of course, subjective and depends on the audience. A logo should be one that the business stakeholders are really proud of and want to display at every opportunity because it enhances whatever it’s on.
The painting that Anne did for Regan Organic Farm was passed over to a graphic designer (Mandy D’Alton) and the logo was designed around it.
Every time I see the Regan Organic van on the road I am delighted that Mary and the team trusted me to direct their brand identity this way and I am very grateful to them for that. Designing a brand identity like this certainly costs more than other routes but I am confident that the business has already had their investment back many times over and it will last for a long time to come.
