Portofino Bakery
How to bake new life into a category so often stale and bland?
One of the world’s oldest food staples, and, yes, also one of the hardest to perfect: great bread is hard to come by. With more and more consumers turning to artisan-style bread, Portofino Bakery sought to satisfy modern preferences for elevated bread experiences while growing their business to new regions in Canada and the United States.
The Next Leap
With new management and funding from investment platform Bond Bakery Brands led by Nicholas Mulroney, Portofino was all set for a full brand refresh.
Spreading the Vision
Their European-inspired artisan approach had already struck a chord with consumers on Vancouver Island, and Mulroney asked us to help communicate their vision to a wider audience while preserving the company’s founding ethos so beloved by existing consumers.
The Right Strategy
Working alongside management and stakeholders, we developed a brand strategy to speak with boldness and daring to the company’s ambition to deliver quality bread a step above the rest of the category.
Be the Rebel. Own the Aisle.
Our design team refreshed the brand’s packaging across all existing SKUs. Crowning each package with a solid black and singular colour scheme, we nudged the brand to firmly embrace their rebel status in the category, while shifting the label placement to make each beautiful loaf the hero of any bread aisle.
Real Deal Typography
Lastly, we enlisted typography expert Kevin Bothua to emblazon each package with its product name in custom calligraphical lettering, bold yet with a rusticated feel. We thought it was the perfect seal to bring the brand’s artisan outlook to a bigger stage, to prove to new consumers that Portofino’s bread is the real deal.
When we made the investment in 2019, we knew the brand needed a change. So the question was who should we trust with this work? Portofino’s reputation is incredibly important to so many so we asked a trustworthy source, and called up Dossier shortly thereafter.
Nicholas Mulroney, Co-Founder & CEO