Au Pied de Cochon has a new brand image, a new face – a new snout – for all of its food products.
For the range of condiments, pies, meat pies and sauces that celebrates the name of the famous restaurant, the creative agency Sid Lee has created a whole new identity, both uniform in spirit and varied in its variations.
It’s a first. Because until now, the design of the packaging had been done as they were introduced to the market, without a graphic grid or even a common brand.
“We realized that everything was disparate,” says Martin Picard, chef and owner of Au pied de poche. “It’s not negative, we have always been disparate. But we noticed that, in supermarkets, people were walking past our products without realizing that it was Pig’s Foot. We understood that we had reached a point where we had to do business with a truly specialized agency. »
The brand is now called Au Pied de Cochon, and a friendly pig appears on its packaging.
This conclusion was not as obvious or inescapable as it seems.
“It started with meetings where I was really beside myself, says Martin Picard. Because it was very reactive, it’s as if someone were touching my privacy. »
Sid Lee’s team, led by creative director Marie-Elaine Benoit, had taken the precaution of holding a series of preliminary meetings with Martin Picard and his partner Marc Beaudin, in order to clearly identify the problem. And the men.
“This step was essential for us, because it was the first time, in fact, that we put our image in the hands of someone else, continues the chef. We thought it was to make it easier. But when it came to saying that the pig that has been following us since day one was going to be transformed, it was something that shocked. »
Step one: find the brand name.
Some condiments were displayed under the name of Martin Picard, while the canned maple syrup discreetly mentioned the Cabane à sucre Au Pied de Cochon.
“We started by first doing this little nominal search exercise and we came back with what we think will last the most over time: Au pied de poche,” says Marie-Elaine Benoit
But in what form?
“We designed typographic characters to try to have something appetizing, a little greedy, with the little pigtail that comes as the final touch on the i. »
The logotype, which unfolds its chubby characters in two lines, sits comfortably at the bottom of the labels.
“We wanted to work on this as simply as possible so that the logo is visible from afar, so that it is always used to its full capacity on the packaging”, underlines the director.
They gave it a bright orange tint, reminiscent of hunting clothes, “because they are very close to the hunt, our friends from Au pied de poche”.
The graphic designers then tackled said pig.
The challenge was both monumental and delicate: how to represent the soul and essence of the company, which is in large part Martin Picard, with the appropriate pig’s head?
“We think it’s easy to draw a pig, but it’s really not easy, comments the interested party. We realized that what the pig gave off had to correspond to what we were, as a company. At one point, he had a little look, an arrogance. Or a misplaced pride that did not correspond to who we were. That’s when we realized that it was really more complex than we had anticipated. »
In effect.
“To make a pig that everyone loves and in which the Au pied de poche team recognizes itself, we had to draw more than 300,” says Marie-Elaine Benoit.
To spot the distinctive attributes of a friendly pig in popular imagery, Sid Lee’s team asked people who aren’t in the business to sketch pig characters.
“It gave us some super interesting pearls. They threw them to the swine. It is from this source that the two ears come – two hairs, and not corn – which are planted on the head of the character.
And that’s how they got to the good pig: a foreleg proudly resting on the Au Pied de Cochon logotype, a smile that was both confident and slightly smirking, a raised eyebrow, as if to say: wait to taste what I have prepared for you, you will tell me about it!
“We, what we hoped is that they recognize themselves in it, that they feel like it was them and that it belonged to them,” comments the creative director.
The designers staged their character with a few graphic elements specific to the product on which it appears: a cap on his head and a hot dog on his paw, for Mustard Baseball, for example.
They gave them earth tones that take inspiration from the traditional plaid shirt.
“When all the products are out, we hope to be able to put them together and create our giant tiled mural in the window of the shop on rue Duluth,” says Marie-Elaine Benoit.
For now, only maple syrup cans, launched in March, display the new identity.
The others will gradually take the place of current products on the shelves. “The time to rotate all this, it will be done in about six months,” said Martin Picard.
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