Fresh From The Field — Hutton's - By Dow Goodfolk

Fresh from the field

Fresh From The Field — Hutton’s – By Dow Goodfolk

For the month of March we are shining a special spotlight on Aotearoa women designers – from their work to their stories.

Fresh from the Field is a weekly article series sharing the fresh and inspiring work of our Aotearoa Design Assembly community.

It’s not every day you get to refresh a 140 year old brand, Dow Goodfolk walk us through how they brought some love back to this golden oldy.

Want to submit your own work to Fresh From The Field? Fill out the FFTF form here.

The brief

Hutton’s is what the trade refers to as a value, or price fighter brand – brands that often don’t get a lot of love or investment. But in these days of tighter purse strings, brands like Hutton’s are on more people’s radars. Their owners were inspired to give the brand a little TLC.

image of Hutton's streaky bacon package next to a plate of bacon and egg sandwich

Product mockup of Hutton's ham & chicken flavoured luncheon on yellow background.

The Design Response

It’s not often that you get to work on a one hundred and forty year old brand, and we were excited to bring some love back to this golden oldy. We decided that it had the kind of authenticity that the Tik Tok generation would likely be impressed by. There was an opportunity to connect it to a new generation of shoppers.

Given the honourable history of Hutton’s, it only felt right to dig into its history before hitting the tools. Diving into the Hutton’s archives, we found a treasure trove of characterful messaging, surprising images and cute claims. We were struck by how daring the brand had been in its past.

We took this inspiration and refreshed the brand, starting with the logo’s traditional red. We gave that red a more daring tone and set it up as the new backdrop for a range of bright, youthful colours that we felt would speak cross-generationally to budget-conscious shoppers – from flatties, to families, to the older folks.

We beefed up the logo to make it louder and prouder of its meat expertise, and we brought its uncommon history into the logo lockup.

Overall we kept the packaging design simple to reflect the brand’s offer, but we also introduced some of the character that we’d seen in the Hutton’s archives. We used typefaces inspired by the type treatments of old Hutton’s packaging and comms, and we added secondary pictures that have some of the quirk, playfulness and personality of the brand’s past conversations. We hope they give shoppers a smile.

We really loved working on this survivor from NZ’s past. We’ve created an identity full of colour, confidence and character. We want everyone to feel good tossing Hutton’s in the trolley. It’s got a lot going for it.