With the holiday season approaching, we thought we would revisit one of our favorite branding projects: The Salted Table by Charles Hunter III – a company focused on in-home catering, intimate gatherings, and classes. Charles also uses The Salted Table as an online journal, sharing stories through food. He is dedicated to his passion for cooking and intentionality by gathering at the table with one’s community.
CONCEPT
When Charles approached us, we wanted to Honor the meaning of his work best as we could. Charles wanted the Salted Table to “have a unique voice in the presence of culinary space”. Our team got started on what we thought that would look like. A brand is not just a logo. It is an emotional connection with your audience. It represents your company’s values, services, ideas, and personality.
THE PROCESS
During our brand discovery process and strategy, we knew we wanted to use branding elements that focused on intentionality, and uniqueness, yet emanated professionalism. Minimalistic lines and organic fonts began swirling in our heads. The brand descriptor “Gather Together. Eat Well. Love People.” seemed to fit perfectly with this Salted Table x Charles Hunter brand.
The brand words that came out of this process were:
Intentional
Approachable
Distinctive
Organic
Honorable
As our discovery deepened and visual inspiration took place, we started one of our favorite parts of the process: mood boards. Mood boards capture the essence of a brand. We use these to launch our creative brainstorming to really get a feel of what we want to create. Images that collectively give an overall vibe or feeling help us understand the type of emotion we want to help portray with branding.
Images Sourced from Pinterest.
BRAND COLORS
A comprehensive color palette should support your brand message. For color, we knew we wanted something that felt organic with pops of color, but also neutral enough to show the skillfulness and professionalism of Charles Hunter.
Grays, chocolate browns, soft blues, and greens started to inspire us.
HANDS ON
We combined a beautiful script, a clean sans serif, and an organic and natural serif together for the full typography system for The Salted Table x Charles Hunter III. With this beautiful type combination, we decided we wanted an illustration element to give it that home-grown and intimate feeling. We added this leaf illustration to add that special final accent to this beautiful type.
FINAL BRAND CONCEPT
After final touches were added, The Salted Table and Charles Hunter III came to life and was ready to gather their community together.
XO, The Honor Team
