How did Caserne make health food branding feel less intimidating? — The Brand Identity – Home of the Greatest in Graphic & Brand Design

Health food branding tends to speak in whispers. A visual language of muted greens, earnest beiges and clean minimalism that often says: this is serious, this requires commitment, this is for people who already know the rules. For Avril, a Quebec health food retailer with 13 stores and nearly three decades of history, that visual vocabulary had become a barrier. The brand held genuine expertise and a fiercely loyal customer base, but struggled to invite anyone new through the door.

Caserne, the Montreal studio founded in 2012, was tasked with opening the brand without diluting what made it distinctive. Working alongside creative strategy studio Studio 15%, the team faced a particular tension: Avril needed to feel welcoming to newcomers whilst reassuring existing customers that standards hadn’t slipped. The solution emerged not from introducing something new, but from amplifying what already existed.

Avril’s growth symbol – a curved, ascending form suggesting progression – had been part of the brand’s visual toolkit for years. Rather than designing around it or relegating it to secondary status, Caserne elevated it to become the entire system’s organising principle. “Beyond its recognisability, it embodied the idea of progression, something that grows over time, incrementally,” explains Léo Breton-Allaire, Partner & Creative Director at Caserne. “This aligned perfectly with the strategic shift we were asked to support, moving away from an intimidating, all-or-nothing vision of health toward a more accessible, human one.”

The symbol now functions as a modular device rather than a static mark. It stretches, repeats, animates and frames content across touchpoints ranging from delivery truck graphics to in-store signage to packaging. Design Director Sébastien Paradis describes the challenge of maintaining coherence across such diverse applications. “By designing it as a modular, adaptable device rather than a fixed graphic, it can now stretch, repeat, animate and frame content without losing recognisability,” he notes. “Combined with a clear typographic hierarchy and a strong illustration language, this allows the system to remain coherent even as it flexes across very different contexts.”

The illustration style, created by Mathieu Dionne, rejects the decorative approach typical of health food retail. Fruits and vegetables appear as bold, graphic forms – slightly abstract, carefully considered, stripped of the precious quality that often accompanies organic produce imagery. Micaël L’Italien, Senior Designer, explains that this approach allowed the team to produce a large volume of illustrations efficiently whilst maintaining cohesion. “The fruits and vegetables across the full offering are not presented as symbols of discipline or virtue, but as everyday objects, familiar, joyful and expressive,” he shares. The graphic treatment integrates seamlessly with the growth symbol, creating what L’Italien describes as “a visual ecosystem where everything feels connected, modular and alive.”

Colour became another tool for signalling accessibility in the brand. Where health food companies typically default to muted, earthy tones, Caserne pushed toward saturation and vibrancy. “We worked from natural references, vegetables, soil, freshness, but pushed them into more saturated, confident expressions,” Paradis explains. “Colour becomes an invitation, not a barrier, signalling that healthy food can be enjoyable, expressive and part of everyday life.”

The typography walks a similar line between authority and warmth. L’Italien describes the objective as preserving Avril’s credibility whilst softening the tone. “The primary typeface brings structure, legibility and confidence, reinforcing expertise and high standards. Supporting styles introduce more openness and rhythm, allowing the brand to speak in a more conversational, human way.”

Hugo Fournier, Founder & Head of Strategy at Studio 15%, points to specific visual tropes the team consciously avoided. “Performance, purity or restriction: minimalist austerity, overly clean symbolism, moralising language or imagery that implies you must already ‘know the rules’ to belong,” he notes. “Instead, the system is built around warmth, humour and progression. It reassures loyal customers by respecting Avril’s standards and credibility, while signalling to newcomers that they don’t need to change everything to get started.” The verbal identity underwent similar recalibration. The French tagline “L'appétit vient en changeant” and its English counterpart “Good for thought” mark a deliberate shift from obligation toward curiosity. Julie Desrochers, Creative Director & Copywriter, describes the tagline as reframing health “not as sacrifice, but as something desirable, enjoyable and sustainable, through a positive subversion of wellness codes.”

For Breton-Allaire, the visual and verbal systems share the same underlying philosophy. “Visually, the brand needed to feel as good as the promise sounds,” he reflects. “Everything, from typography to imagery, supports the same idea: making healthier choices doesn’t mean giving things up, but moving forward with more pleasure, less pressure, one small win at a time. Ultimately, celebrating baby steps proves more effective than rigid resolve.”

Avril was founded in 1995 and has since grown to 13 stores across Quebec, supported by a transactional website, a house brand with over 400 products, a privilege programme called Marguerite, and an exclusive professional programme called Avril Pro. More than 1,000 people work across stores, headquarters, distribution centre and in-house kitchen. The brand’s growth potential was clear, but geographic reach remained limited and familiarity among broader audiences was low.

The identity positions Avril for expansion without abandoning the expertise that built its reputation. By treating the growth symbol as a flexible structural device rather than a decorative element, by embracing colour and illustration that feel generous rather than restrictive, and by speaking in language that welcomes rather than prescribes, the system creates space for new customers to enter. The brand says, as Fournier puts it, “you’re welcome here, wherever you’re at.”