Macs Small Goods
The Brief
Create and brand a new enterprise with deliverables specific so that enterprises needs
My Role
Graphic Designer, market researcher, branding and logo design.
Introduction
This project was especially close to my heart, designing and branding a butcher shop based on my late granda’s old store Macs Butcher. For me this project really was about capturing his essence in a brand, we are often asked to capitalise and highlight the part that makes our brand ‘unique’ and ‘stand out’ and with this project I can truly say that was him, the way he carried himself in life, how he greeted and treated everyone as family was really what this brand is all about. I truly believe this shows through in every part of the design.
The Audience
Along with being a tribute to my granda this project still needed an audience as all good designs do. For this project I was targeting an older demographic, mainly middle-aged parents and elderly citizens, especially from more higher income areas. As a stand-alone shop you can expect higher quality and more locally sourced meats that will come with a higher price tag then in a more franchised brand like Woolworths or Coles. Here its important to understand that this demographic is looking for quality products and a more local and personalised service which is what the brand is all about.
The Name
The name Macs Small Goods came from the original name of the shop, though she had a few different names in her various locations over the decades the one that really sang was Macs Small Goods. An homage to stores of the past, with the more sophisticated name and old-fashioned title, and of course embracing the Australian culture of giving everything a nick name shortening granda’s last name McStravick to Mac (much easier for Aussies to spell as well).
The Brand
Macs Small Goods is all about the story, a family-owned butcher shop passed down from father to son is hardly a new concept, however when told and sold correctly it’s a story that really sells, throw in how the original shop was accidently blown up in Ireland in 1972 during the Civil War, and a family migrating to Australia, and you have a real winner. The brand is for the every man, easily accessible, honest and open to its public.
Colour
Choosing a colour scheme was perhaps the easiest part of this whole project, and it set the tone for everything that was to come. Australia may have been the place he would come to call home but my granda was an Irishmen through and through. So when picking colours I really had two choices, green or orange, and since orange made everything look like Halloween, green it was.
