Heydays and Goods highlight Plateful’s love for the planet, food and people in its sincere identity

Plateful was founded to help reduce the amount of food waste created by the produce industry, stepping in to help bolster food distribution channels that cannot handle the volume of food that they’re responsible for shipping. Astoundingly, one-third of the food produced never actually reaches the consumer. Turning to Oslo-based sister studios Heydays and Goods, Plateful sought a brand and strategy that highlights their love for the planet, its food and its people; resulting in a nature-inspired, sincere and undemanding visual identity. 

The identity in question is led by its distinct wordmark, crafted in collaboration with Copenhagen-based type designer Clara Jullien Isaksson, which simply encapsulates the company’s intentions within its letterforms. “We landed on a classic, no-fuzz wordmark that doesn’t steal attention from the simple idea that the whole logo is actually a plate,” Heydays’ Design Director Lars Kjelsnes tells us, initially rolling with standard commercial typefaces before finding that the letters became too obtrusive, and turned to Scotch Roman typographic references instead. 

“Even though the wordmark was to be classic with little fuzz, we wanted to be able to control all of the details and that it had a hint of its own voice,” Kjelsnes explains, noting the inclusion of small details that designers would appreciate. “We’ve worked with Clara on a couple of projects now and she’s super skilled and has a really nice approach,” embracing the flair and finesse she adds to each project. “We knew she’d handle this task very nicely,” he adds. The bespoke lettering in question was crafted to precisely match the x-height of Plateful’s primary typeface, Söhne, from Klim Type Foundry, allowing the two to be effortlessly combined within sentences. “Söhne was chosen as a workhorse typeface,” Kjelsnes recalls, utilising the sans serif along Linotype’s monospace, Century Schoolbook – a secondary typeface used for detailing. “The monospace gives a bit of warmth that ties things more in with the wordmark,” he describes, striking the tonal balance between the sincerity, duty and care at Plateful’s core.

Highlighting the innately collaborative nature of the project is the inclusion of photographer Anne Valeur, who was brought in to document the food production process – briefed with the task of finding beauty in the ordinary. “We had an idea of how we wanted it,” Kjelsnes remarks, suggesting warm, editorial photography as a reference, “and we hoped to capture very different aspects in a week of what goes on at Plateful and their producers.” Instructing Valeur to “keep it loose” when tackling the subjects. “We also needed them to stand out nicely from our partially very dark colour palette,” he continues, “but really you’ve got to let it up to chance as well, as we wanted some honesty in it,” keeping their brief deliberately non-prescriptive. “I was with Anne for two days of shooting, and she was out alone for the rest of the days,” Kjelsnes concludes, “and I think it’s nice to let go a bit like that and see what happens.”

Heydays

Goods

Plateful