Brand Development

LOADING

BRAND
DEVELOPMENT

Sow Good is a freeze-dried candy company based in Irving and Dallas, Texas. I joined the team at a pivotal moment as the company transitioned from health-oriented freeze-dried foods - such as apples, smoothies, and granola - to an exciting new focus on candy products. Recently, we've further diversified our offerings by introducing product lines for babies, pets, and gummies, each requiring distinct branding.

In my role as Creative Lead, I've led and executed transformative improvements across our entire creative ecosystem, including digital content, print and packaging designs, retail displays, and marketing collateral. My proactive leadership and collaboration with executives, the marketing manager, and the talented creative team I oversee have significantly raised both the quality and volume of creative output. My vision and careful attention to detail have helped redefine and elevate Sow Good’s visual identity, enhancing our storytelling, reinforcing brand consistency, and positioning the company as a majority market shareholder in the freeze-dried candy space.

Role: Principal Designer, Creative Lead

Team: Web Developer, Jr. Designer, Videographer/Editor, Marketing Manager

Scope:

BRAND IDENTITY

ART DIRECTION

PRODUCT DESIGN

01 Brand
IDENTITY

Sow Good's first logo had a problem - the manner in which it was constructed lacked versatility. The lack of a border/stroke around the text made it hard to implement on certain backgrounds without a drop shadow, which has the potential to look haphazardly thrown together. There were two color configurations for the wordmark - white & black. It only incorporated one of the brand's colors.

Trademark considerations prevented me from making extensive changes, but the changes that I was able to implement are subtle, yet effective as an attractive update. They include the addition of a thick stroke around the entire logo to assist with placement on backgrounds of all types. The stroke around the 'mouth' portion has also been increased to match the 'heft' of the text & the stroke.

The next change is to the colors - instead of the wordmark portion of the logo being restricted to black/white, It's now either white &/or borderless, or red, based on the context of it's placement. And finally, it was skewed five degrees to add dynamism & movement. These same changes were made to the horizontal orientation.

Typography plays a critical role in Sow Good's visual identity, providing clarity, personality, and a memorable aesthetic that aligns seamlessly with the playful yet refined nature of the brand.

Sow Good adopted the Sohne Schmal font family designed by Klim Type Foundry, prominently expressing this typeface through the logo itself in the distinctive "Dreiviertelfett" weight, as well as in headlines utilizing the slightly heavier "Fett" style. This pairing creates a refined yet bold visual hierarchy.

For functional and text-heavy applications, the Sow Good selected the DIN Condensed font family, chosen for its visual similarity and complementary nature to Sohne Schmal. DIN Condensed's tall, condensed form ensures proper readability, especially at smaller sizes, making it ideal for packaging details and body text.

Lastly, the tertiary display font Socafe provides playful charm and youthful exuberance inspired by the infamous Comic Sans. Used for short headlines and playful accents, Socafe features sticky, tight kerning, haphazard character rotation, and an irregular baseline, capturing the carefree joy and whimsy associated with candy.

As a candy company with SKU's paving the way for a new confectionary category to compete with chocolates & gummies, specific callouts were created to pair with the presentation of our product. The very nature of freeze-dried candy is that it's light & airy, crunchy, and concentrated with flavor.

Other pairings include modifications to the logo to succinctly express the nature of our company - for instance, "Sow Good Freeze Dried Candy". Our slogan, "Sweeten the Revolution", marks the underside of every bag in every store.

For Corporate Communication, Stakeholders:

This voice asserts our status as industry disruptors. This tone is confident, forward-thinking, and unapologetically bold - mirroring the founder's immigrant spirit and their journey of turning adversity into agility. It sends a clear message: we transformed a niche food category into a trailblazing presence in the confectionary space, setting a new industry standard that larger brands like Skittles & Jolly Rancher would soon follow.

For Consumers:

I perfected a brand voice that is exuberant, cheeky, and irresistibly playful; witty, engaging and unpretentious. By employing vivid, sensory language, I aim to evoke both the taste and the texture of our products, much like a friend enthusiastically sharing a secret. We weave seasonal and timely cues into the narrative, ensuring our messaging stays dynamic and relevant throughout the year, striking a balance between clear calls to action and a relaxed, inclusive energy.

The dual-color palette of Sow Red (#FF0061, Pantone 199 C) & Sow Blue (#00C6FF, Pantone 299 C) was chosen to reflect the brand's unique position in the confectionery market. These colors create a bold, contemporary identity that stands out in the competitive candy space.

In addition to these two colors, we also take other primary and secondary colors from our product packaging design.

Rainbow Bites Green

#22B14C

Pantone 148 C

Peach Perfect Orange

#F6851F

Pantone 148 C

Crunchy Bears Purple

#B838A5

Pantone 253 C

Lemon Puffs Yellow

#FEDA00

Pantone 394 C

02 ART
DIRECTION

Availability Flyer

Product photography is a cornerstone of modern product marketing, serving as the critical bridge between consumer perception and purchase decision in the candy/snack industry. Therefore, I make sure whenever, wherever consumers see our product, it is presented in the most vibrant, appetizing light possible, & as close a representation as possible to the real thing. This'll be on sell sheets, advertisements, and the packaging.

I handle every step of the process, from snapping the raw images with my company-provided Canon T7i (due for a major upgrade) to post-processing through Adobe Lightroom, then dropping it into Photoshop for background removal, pinpoint edits, color corrections, and more to make the image as high-quality as possible.

Sow Good's B2C strategy as of late has shifted away from direct-to-consumer sales and towards retail placement in brick & mortar locations, which has landed us in major stores like:

Retail displays play a major role in the success of emerging niche categories like freeze-dried candy. Before we can get to the shelf, consumers have to show interest in picking up the product at all - an attractive display does just that.

When they do arrive on shelves, sometimes we deploy shelf displays to supplement information on what the candy actually is, as well as provide a stable container for the bags to stand up in. For ease of placement, we sometimes design tear-off displays so that our candy goes straight from shipping to the shelf.

Our website should fully embody our brand identity, as it’s often the first touchpoint for new consumers. People judge a brand’s legitimacy by its branding—Sow Good outperformed competitors by choosing refined, branded packaging over basic alternatives. I plan to extend this refinement to our website, positioning us as freeze-drying experts and establishing our legitimacy in this emerging category.

Sow Good wasn't always a pioneer in the confectionary category - their roots harken back to their namesake - to sow good throughout the world by creating healthy, sustainable and shelf-stable foods like granola, smoothes, and freeze dried fruits. During this period, their packaging, containing simple colors & noisy gradients against a stark white background, perfectly captured what a health-based food item should exude: Simplicity & purity.

The problem is, we're in a different lane now: Candy. Although we're in a niche category, the broadness of candy branding is already defined by vibrant packaging, playful typography, and messaging presented so sweetly, you get a sugar rush just by reading it. This was the opposite of our candy packaging. And although it was low (read: not at all) on the priority list of management, one of the first major projects I initiated upon my arrival at Sow Good wasa wide-scale redesign of all our packaging. Below is an analysis of the state of packaging at Sow Good from 2023 to 2025, and the changes I managed to get approved.

03 PRODUCT
DESIGN

An analysis of competitor branding indicated that our closest competitor in sales, Andersen's Crazy Candy, also had the most developed branding & art direction. While Sow Good had done it's due diligence at one point in this respect, it was time for a major refresh. I began the project with only a few objectives in mind - make color a focal point, increase the fidelity of the product photography, and incorporate elements from our brand identity, like fonts and icons. The ultimate goal was to design packaging that put us directly on par, or at least in the same realm as Crazy Candy.