Coles (Australia) asked us to create a premium heirloom vegetable brand. The vegetables were strange-looking, unfamiliar, and full of personality, so we built the brand around exactly that.

We called it Hatters and created a whole world to match: botanical-style illustrations, eccentric vegetable characters, their individual profiles, and a resident expert named Livingstone R. Rabbit. The tone was more field guide than supermarket, which gave the range a distinct identity and made discovering an unusual vegetable feel like part of the fun.

That world extended into recipe books created with an Australian chef, seed-embedded cards, “Magic Tickets,” packaging, and a writing system that held the whole thing together. It was strange, specific, and very far from what grocery marketing looked like at the time.

This delightful approach worked. More than 40,000 Hatters vegetables sold in the first week, generating over half a million dollars and outperforming comparable premium launches across Coles. With less than $5,000 in PR spend, the campaign reached more than 9.2 million people.

The work went on to win a Cannes Design Lion for 360 Brand Identity, alongside recognition from Cannes, Spikes and APMA.