Southwark Pepper Company is an urban pepper farm in the neighborhood of Pennsport in southeast Philadelphia. The owners pride themselves in the tradition of farming and peppers that have lived in their families for generations, as well as providing quality and ethical products to their community.
The goals of this brand were to make peppers more approachable through the branding, as well as to create an identity that would seamlessly merge into both the business and design cultures in Philadelphia.
The name Southwark comes from historic Philadelphia. The area that the farm hypothetically would be located is in an area that was once known as Southwark. The areas that are currently in the area of old Southwark are Pennsport and Queen Village. I really liked the idea of taking something old and putting a modern spin on it, especially with something as spicy as hot peppers. Today, you will see some remnants of Southwark on buildings throughout the area.
First, I really wanted to outline Southwark as a business. I did a lot of research on urban farming, pepper farming, sustainable and ethical practices for farms and businesses, and also where the target demographic should lie. I wanted to get to know this information before I started putting the visuals together. I came up with an outline for the business that talked about their mission and vision, what they sell and where, location, their market and the scope of the project.
I started to draw out every combination and possibility for the logo. I wanted it to feel traditional, but with a touch of the modern day. I thought that this style would fit well within Philadelphia, as well as represent the brand and its values well.
The logo was inspired by a lot of design that has come from Philly designers. Studios like True Hand Society, Mellow Gold and Smile & Diction inspired the logos I created. I landed on this idea of a hexagonal seal with warped, angular type, paired with a script font to add a vintage element. I wanted the brand identity to fit in with the scene that Philadelphia has created for itself through their rich culture of small business with locally sourced design.
The rest of the brand was given an industrial aesthetic with touches to make them seem vintage. I wanted the brand to be bold, but to also be friendly so that it appealed to everyone. The labels on the bottles and jars have been designed to showcase the product inside. I also wanted to include descriptions on the bottles so that people knew what the flavor was going to be like and how spicy it was going to be. I also added some smaller details, like when the peppers were harvested and a batch number.
In the catalog, I wanted to showcase the mission, values, and history of the brand while also advertising the products. I used color graded photos throughout the book and the pepper icons on the pages that showcase the peppers. I kept the type consistent with what was on the labels on the packaging to continue to tie the brand together. I chose to display the catalog in a notepad format so that viewers would only see one page at a time so that it would highlight each page.
The typography throughout the brand has been something that was worked on over and over to perfect. The biggest headlines in the catalog and packaging were in a font called Refrigerator and had a drop shadow to it. Fenway is the script font that is layered on top of the Refrigerator font in the smaller headers. The body font used throughout the brand is URW DIN.
On the website, users can find the information that is in the catalogue and an online store where they can buy products and merchandise. They will be able to view photos of Southwark and the peppers in an online gallery. I also included information about where Southwark Pepper Company is located and their hours.
