Summerhill Market is a family-run business, managed by the third generation members, with premises on Toronto’s Summerhill Avenue and a smaller location—a floral boutique—on Mt. Pleasant Rd. The store has 200 employees, butchers, bakery and deli, a BBQ in the summer and offers a variety of catering services.
Summerhill Market is admired for its high-quality products, and its ability to consistently redefine what it means to be a boutique grocery store since its inception in 1954. Its commitment to quality is reflected in its extensive range of own-brand products, developed by an in-house executive chef and a team of 80.
With the intention of giving the store a more contemporary voice while maintaining its warmth, Canadian studio Blok developed a new brand identity of pastel color, sans-serif type, moments of illustrative texture and a labeling system that links an extensive line of own brand products. In addition, Blok also delivered assets that included business cards and stickers, packaging, branded tote bag, and notecards.
Summerhill’s brand identity is a confluence of color, type, and grid, rather than built around a dominant single asset, vibrant ink, or high-contrast photography. It differentiates itself, like many own brand products, through aesthetic simplicity and communicative clarity within a visually competitive context, but not at the expense of perceived quality.
Legacy and modernity are discernible and effectively interwoven and expressed through the pairing of light serif and monolinear sans-serif, and alongside the use of space, choice of color, and typesetting that favors the center-aligned label. The logotype is straightforward in its communicative intentions, particularly in the use of "est."
Although there are some interesting pattern details, the color palette is the real highlight.
Summerhill Market is a great packaging design in the Food & Beverage industry.
