Marketing

Sweetgreen shows off new look

All photos provided by Sweetgreen

May 26, 2021

Sweetgreen, a 120-unit brand known for serving healthy food, has launched a brand identity in hopes of reimagining fast food and teaching future generations about the importance of what they eat.

"At sweetgreen, we create experiences that connect food and culture together andwe want this brand identity to help re-imagine what the fast food industry looks like in the years to come," Nathaniel Ru, co-founder and chief brand officer, said in a company press release.

The Los Angeles-based chain's goal was to create a flexible, sustainable design system that reflected the culture of local communities by focusing on the following areas:

• Food
  Sweetgreen hopes to show that fast food can be synonymous with real food, so leaders invested in food photography, menu designs and packaging in an effort to highlight its food ethos, which celebrates seasonality, local sourcing and transparency.
• Sustainability
  The chain believes that climate change is the defining challenge of this generation, so its new identity showcases its sustainability initiatives and ongoing journey to carbon neutrality.
• People
  The company's leaders believe happy team members create happy customers, which is why employees have new uniforms and merchandise.
• Culture
  Sweetgreen collaborates with the chefs, athletes and musicians to connect culture and food. In tandem with the rebrand, for example, the chain recently launched its first athlete partnership with tennis star Naomi Osaka. Fans got a first glimpse of the new branding in the national campaign.

Earlier this year, Sweetgreen announced its expanded creative capabilities and fully operational in-house agency led by Thomas Wilder, executive creative director. To develop the branding, Sweetgreen worked with Collins, a San Francisco- and New York-based strategy and design consultancy. Together, they spent the past year evolving the brand and implementing it across its physical store design and signage systems, marketing, advertising, social channels, digital products, packaging and team member uniforms experiences, according to the release.

Although some guests will start seeing the new look today, Sweetgreen will spend the next few years implementing the elements throughout all locations.

Sweetgreen was No. 5 on this year's list of Fast Casual Top 100 Movers & Shakers.