Graza sells incredibly high quality Extra Virgin olive oil in a squeezy bottle. In other words, fancy oil in a decidedly un-fancy format. The olive oil wedding of highbrow and lowbrow that everyone has unknowingly been waiting for. The brand identity we created reflects this unexpected union and grants people permission to have fun with their oil and stop worrying about wasting the good stuff.
We started this project like any other, with lots of research. We surveyed hundreds of people about this category, hoping to better understand what helps shoppers decide which olive oil to buy when faced with dozens of options. As it turns out, the top three factors people look for are brands that are “extra virgin,” reasonably priced (but not the cheapest), and have nice packaging. The irony is that, despite Extra Virgin being the #1 most important quality they want to see, less than 1% of survey participants knew what Extra Virgin even meant. And despite loving olive oil, a majority of participants said they had no preferences when it came to brand name. It seemed that people wanted to feel like they were buying nice olive oil even though they legitimately couldn’t tell the good from the bad. These insights were critical in helping us form the foundations of Graza’s identity, both visual and verbal. The opportunity we saw was to create a universally beloved brand in a category where none existed. To do that, we needed to create a brand grounded in quality, honesty, and the desire to make cooking really, really fun.
The world that emerged was elevated, delightful, and rich with homemade charm. The custom wordmark was inspired by old world letterforms that tell you its European without relying on faux heraldry or European flags like so many others do. To turn the old world look into a trusted challenger, we made sure to build space for plenty of education. We made a “Graz-o-pedia” which explains all things E.V.O.O.—like what ‘extra virgin’ actually means, or the difference between a finishing oil and a cooking oil.
Graza’s laid back approach to cooking drips out across everything from the copy to the warmth and casualness of the imagery. Whether that’s creating loveable illustrations (all hand drawn with markers on sticky notes, by the way), or bringing camcorders and disposable cameras on set to capture those spontaneous moments. It all leads to that intangibly special feeling you simply can’t get when you’re trying too hard to be fancy.
