Food Packaging Design, A Look Before & After of Fat Toad Farm
Refreshing food packaging is rewarding not only for our clients–and their customers, but also our designers at Skillet. Check out the food packaging that we re-designed for Fat Toad Farm’s delicious Salted Bourbon Caramel. Fat Toad Farm said, “It was such a pleasure to work with the Skillet crew! With their vision and design skills we created fabulous new labels for our products and executed a successful media outreach campaign to help launch the newest addition to our line of artisan caramel products. We look forward to working with them again in the near future!”
A packaging redesign for national brand Fat Toad Farm.
Fat Toad Farm uses the milk from their herd of French Alpine goats to create unique goat’s milk caramel sauces (a traditional Mexican confection known as Cajeta). They were one of the first producers of artisanal Cajeta in the U.S. and their products are sold in a variety of specialty food stores including Whole Foods and Williams-Sonoma.
Farm Shares at Skillet Yield Delicious Results
Roasted Beets and Carrots with Honey + Vinegar from our Farm Shares (a employee benefit at Skillet Creative).
At Skillet, we take our local food pretty seriously. This is why we joined Full Moon Farm’s Certified-Organic CSA. Every week, Farmers Dave Zuckerman and Rachel Nevitt have delivered a bounty of fresh, organic vegetables, bread, cheese, and eggs right to our front door (the Thursday delivery is very conveniently located right outside of our office, at One Main Street in downtown Burlington). With a steady supply of beets and carrots providing the iron-rich backbone to the weekly deliveries, we had to come up with creative ways to use up all of the sweet root vegetables. We have shredded the beets and carrots and tossed them with Napa cabbage and cilantro for a crunchy slaw. We have sliced the beets thinly and layered them with potatoes and cheese for an easy gratin. This week, we wanted something quick and easy. So we tossed the cut-up vegetables in a pre-heated cast-iron skillet with whole garlic cloves and added a simple honey-and-vinegar glaze at the end for a boost of flavor. This is a side dish that there is no doubt we’ll enjoy throughout the week with leftover roast chicken. Give it a try at home, the quick and easy recipe is below!
Roasted Beets + Carrots with Honey + Vinegar
Serves 4 as a side dish
We make a variation on this roasted-vegetable side dish almost every week in my house. The honey and vinegar caramelize and get nice and sticky in the oven, adding a delicious sweet-and-sour flavor to these hearty fall vegetables. Use any produce that you have in abundance.. Parsnips, turnips and squash would also work well.
4 or 5 medium carrots, peeled and cut into large pieces
4 or 5 medium beets, peeled and cut into wedges
3 whole cloves garlic, gently smashed with the heel of your hand
2 teaspoons olive oil
Kosher salt and black pepper
1 teaspoon balsamic vinegar
1 teaspoon honey
Preheat your oven to 425 degrees. Place a large cast-iron skillet in the oven to heat up while you prepare the vegetables.
Toss the carrots, beets and whole garlic cloves with the olive oil and a generous pinch each of salt and pepper. Grab an oven mitt and carefully add to preheated pan; roast until the vegetables start to brown, about 15 minutes. Toss; roast for 10 additional minutes, until the vegetables are caramelized and cooked through but still retain some bite.
In a small bowl, combine the honey and vinegar. Drizzle over vegetables and toss to combine. Roast for 5 more minutes.
Digging In to Local Food in Vermont
Vermont is home to some of the best food fetes in the east. The Vermont Fresh Network’s annual forum dinner is one event that local foodies shouldn’t miss. This was the 16th year that Vermont’s premiere organization that links farmers to chefs, pulled out all the stops for an unbelievably scrumptious and entertaining evening.
Skillet Owner Nicole L’Huillier Fenton and Cathy Wisolski of Lake Champlain Chocolates at Vermont Fresh Network’s Annual Dinner.
We were fortunate to not only attend this year’s event (accompanied by one of our fantastic clients, Cathy Wisloski of Lake Champlain Chocolates) but also celebrate the launch of Vermont’s new agri-tourism website, www.DigInVermont.com at a private reception at the Inn at Shelburne Farms. The crowd at the DigIn Vermont reception was small but celebratory with local wines and delicious Shelburne Farms award-winning cheeses. The event was really the warm-up for the real tasting frenzy that was about to begin in the Coach Barn. But before we made our way over to the main event, we raised a glass to toast the hard-working team that has brought agriculture and food experiences together by creating DigIn Vermont. From the cheese and beer pairing trails to the best food adventures by regions, DigIn Vermont is truly the gateway to culinary treasures. Congratulations to DigInVermont!
Packaging Upgrade Makes a Big Impact
When we first started Skillet, we received a request for a work proposal from two Vermont women running a small food company out of their home kitchens. The company made high-protein snack cakes and gluten-free snack cake mixes in four flavors—banana chocolate chip, pumpkin spice, decadent brownie, and apple ginger. From the start, we knew it would be a fun project! For one, we loved the bars and mixes—delicious and packed with protein, healthy whole grains and fiber—and, we did not see any other companies giving customers the capability to bake their own energy bars at home.
The project began as a brand redesign and grew into a full-fledged design and marketing pcampaign. At the end of one year of hard work and collaboration, the company, Wholesome Cravings, unvieled a new brand, product packaging, sell sheets and other sales and trade-show collateral, a new website with a blog, all new product shots and a brand-new social-media presence. In addition, the company added a new flavor—Caramel Apple—and a tagline, “You can have your craving and eat it too!”
Phew! What a busy year.
Take a look at how the packaging has evolved. It is bright, cheery and inviting, and the angel-devil logo helps to cheekily emphasize the idea that Wholesome Cravings bars are healthy, delicious and indulgent. The products let us give into the angel and devil inside all of us when that mid-afternoon snack craving comes along.
In addition to the packaging, we helped Wholesome Cravings reach out to local and regional media and to bloggers interested in covering all-natural foods, gluten-free news and products. The company is gradually building relationships with the media and continues to gain exposure. They have increased “Likes” in Facebook and continue to get out on the road, doing product demos all over Vermont. This spring, Wholesome Cravings participated in its first international trade show—the Summer Fancy Food Show in Washington, D.C.—where they got fantastic feedback on their new look.
Perhaps most important, the company has almost doubled the number of store locations that carry its products.
We are very proud of the work that Wholesome Cravings and Skillet were able to accomplish. By establishing a clear, focused message with compelling design, we feel confident that they are on the path to success.
