Foodee as a company began somewhere around 2014, with the goal of solving complex food problems for large group events and corporate clients. The early days were apparently a "do what it takes" affair, and solutions were creative and adaptive. Resourcefulness gave this team its edge, and served as the rationale behind its first logo of a fox that shares the same qualities.

I'll admit that when I first came across the Foodee fox, I struggled with the concept. Animals are probably the last thing you want involved with food (they're more like to steal it than provide it) and even though the Foodee fox wasn't threatening, it didn't look particularly generous either.

Coupled with the burgandy and dark grey color palette, the early Foodee brand felt cold and flavorless. It was clear that this was designed with the company culture in mind and not the audience.

Other designers who worked with Foodee obviously had the same thoughts and the fox mascot eventually faded away, leaving only the stylized wordmark and a brighter color palette of pastels and light grey. These were welcome updates, and greatly improved on the heaviness of the old brand, but still felt like it was missing the mark. 

Fast forward a few years when I started working at Foodee full-time. One of the first improvements I helped with was guiding a redesign of the marketing site to include punchier colors, stronger typography, and more refreshing visuals. With the fox and dark heavy colors largely retired, the brand was now moving towards a much more vibrant and engaging personality. 

Targeting the color palette, we came up with a revised set of warmer, saturated colors and reduced the overuse of grey backgrounds. Outdated stock imagery was also replaced for more refined visuals and a number of marketing pages were launched or overhauled to align with the new look.

The original wordmark isn't something I'd consider poorly designed. I'd describe it as friendly, which was the right direction for a food related business but sitting next to the updated website it was starting to look unrefined.

I knew that proposing a big overhaul to the logo would never fly, so changes had to be strategic. For the most part, the logo stayed the same, which bought the team a great deal of flexibility in rolling it out. If you ever saw the two next to eachother (which was likely to happen given that focus on a rebrand was limited) you wouldn't think much of it.

The most significant update was a simple dot added to break up the wordmark. This served two purposes; firstly it added just enough visual interest to save it from looking like a lifeless chunk of text, and secondly it helped remind people of the unconvential website domain. Tangentially, it also helps assuage any sticklers for spelling =).

With the creative direction in a good spot and the brand elements nicely defined, we continued to work this new personality into more areas of the app and marketing materials. This refreshed look of a bright and simple brand had the right kind of energy that would show customers that Foodee is a brand who "gets it".