FSC easily became one of my favorite clients
As a designer there are certain clients that tend to grow on you, they become your clients. Food Service Consultants came to Paradigm as a smaller client but I wanted to treat them like they were one of our biggest. I worked as rapidly as I could to fit some big ideas into the time I had with them, and they love the outcome as much as I do—maybe even more than I do.
The logo was almost an afterthought
When Food Service Consultants reached out they were primarily hoping to update their website in order to attract new clients, and really to showcase how truly capable they were despite not looking like it online. It almost felt like a logo was something they might put on the backburner until the website was finished. I wanted to do right by them and make sure the brand and logo were considered as a single entity, so we got right to work and expedited the logo design process as much as we could.
As I was designing I was looking for ways to subtly pay homage to there previous logo which heavily emphasized the 'S.' After trial, error, and refinement we ended up with FSC set in Optima and an S that terminates into a fresh leaf curving around the bottom. It wasn't long after that the logo existed on all sorts of collateral including business cards, letters, envelopes, stickers, folders and more.
The team at FSC did a wonderful job communicating what they liked and didn't like about each logo design I created for them and it made developing a brand even easier as I had a great understanding of their tastes. They loved the hand-crafted feel of the logo option on the right, but through our discussions we both agreed that it wasn't the strongest direction for the logo. The type we used with that logo would later play a role in the design of their website.
A fresh website a decade overdue
As I wrapped up the logo design with the client, our next course was a brand new website. I was shocked and excited to see the current website they were working with.
Their website hadn't been updated for over ten years, and it was created completely without mobile devices in mind. It felt like a project straight out of the past and I couldn't wait to transform it into something that thrived on both mobile and desktop.
The team at Food Service Consultants encouraged me to use just about any stock photography that suited the site, stating that they do almost everything when it comes to food. And it was true, they cover everything from fine dining to school lunch and put an enormous amount of care into all of it.
One of the key ideas that led to the final web design was an emphasis on ingredients. Each page features a pairing of a mouthwatering fruit or vegetable with imagery of a dish being prepared or eaten featuring that ingredient. Fresh herbs or garlic are allowed to sit directly on elements as if they were laid out on a plate.
As a bit of play on words, I included a plate of food in the site menu as if it were a menu from a restaurant. It started off as a silly idea but my team and I quite liked the additional color it added—a bit of form to compliment the function.
The fruits and vegetables that lead each page were complimented with a bright, matching color, and were allowed to extend outside of the border that defines them. In order to create an even more appealing illusion, I separated the shadow from each ingredient to keep it confined to the color without disrupting the background of the website.
Making school lunch hassle-free
The team at FSC was incredibly appreciative of the time I spent breathing life into their website and brand. So much so, that they would often bring more and more work that they knew we would have a creative perspective on. Plenty of the requests were simple, one-off certificates or flyers, but this time FSC needed some help with the school lunch menus they display at dozens of local schools.
Each year the team at FSC would painstakingly edit their menus for each school they partner with to provide meals, but this time around they had a trusted partner to help lighten that load and add a bit of fun along the way. I transformed their menu design and created an easily editable menu template so that their team can focus on food rather than get stuck in Microsoft Office for hours. Each month of the year received its own color palette, a simple pattern, and a fun fact or two to fill in any empty space.
