The company, Mandolé Orchard, cofounded by Jenna and Tom Stefanovic two years ago, looked to Landini Associates for a new graphic identity and packaging design that would set them apart from the crowd — just as their almond milk does.
Landini Associates, best known for working with global brands from Hilton and McDonald’s to ALDI and Walgreens to create innovative retail and hospitality experiences, also has an internationally acclaimed practice in branding, identity, packaging and environmental graphics. Other clients have included Jurlique, Jones the Grocer, Loblaws and Harrods.
Yet they often work with high-potential startups like Mandolé Orchard, and grow with them, says Lucy Landini, the firm’s marketing leader who already happened to personally know Jenna Stefanovic and her Dinicola family of farmers. “We liked their brand values, concept and authenticity,” says Landini. “We also like to support local independents — and, of course, we love these wonderful people!”
The Mandolé Orchard team engaged Landini Associates to design the identity, typography, packaging and all graphic communications. The almond milk vessels, which recall classic milk delivery bottles from days of yore, are half public-service info and half collectors’ sets. The copywriting describes the full process of creating Mandolé Orchard almond milk while the imagery, a fertile branch from an almond tree bursting with open-shell nuts and leaves, spans across four bottles when set down side-by-side.
The resulting package is a highly recognizable, instant classic, says Ben Goss, associate director of Graphics for Landini Associates. One expert called Landini’s concept “such a fresh approach to the plant milk out there at the moment. Super classy, streaks of provenance.”
“More ambitious clients like the Stefanovics have standout products, and so they seek a visual identity and brand language that is more unique and different from what the global purveyors offer,” says Goss, who focuses on maintaining Landini’s creative standards at a consistently high level. “Offering a world-class almond milk with a uniquely local sensibility, Mandolé Orchard has become a high-demand product at the best grocery stores and specialty food retailers, commanding premium shelf space.”
The process of creating such packaging often starts with a “reverse brief,” Goss explains, where the Landini Associates team succinctly describes what the client should want to achieve. As part of the subsequent deliverables, Goss lists:
- identify the client’s unique position in the marketplace
- create graphic branding devices, and
- roll out brand materials.
The work will benefit Mandolé Orchards in new ways this year and beyond, as the company plans for introduce several new products including gelato and almond oil, adds Landini. “We are proud to be the design team behind Australia’s first single-origin almond milk, made with whole almonds from the Mandolé Family Farm,” she says.
And what did the multigenerational family farmers think of the results? “The most important thing to us was that the very essence of who we are would speak immediately to our customers,” said Jenna Stefanovic. “Landini Associates captured this perfectly in our brand, and we couldn’t be prouder.”
