The UK’s highest rated meal delivery subscription, Lions Prep, recently unveiled a name change to “Frive”, together with a full rebrand. Created in partnership with London creative agency Among Equals, it’s part of a mission to change the way we eat for the better.
The rebrand, which has been in development since last year, aims to bolster the brand's strong position in the ready-to-eat category by expanding beyond its current audience.
An abbreviation of ‘food to thrive’, Frive is more than a name, it’s a guiding principle. To learn more we caught up with Emily Jeffrey-Barrett, Co-founder and Creative Director at Among Equals.
What was the brief for the brand?
The brief was to bolster Lions Prep’s already-strong position in the ready-to-eat category by expanding its appeal beyond its current audience – predominantly fitness lovers – to create a brand that could be loved by everyone.
To reach this next stage of growth, it needed to move away from the idea of helping people monitor their nutritional intake and making meal prep easy and instead embrace a proposition that works for millions: those who want to eat well and look after their holistic health but don’t have the time to sacrifice convenience.
How did the initial pitch/brainstorming phase go?
We were introduced to the team at a critical point – they had huge growth goals, a new name they were excited about (Frive, an abbreviation of ‘food to thrive’) and needed a partner who could help them build a brand that would match their ambition. We spent a long time speaking with the team and getting to know the founder, George.
George had an extremely strong, clear vision for the business and loads of ideas. So we co-created the brief with them and ran a really collaborative concept process full of conversation and joint brainstorms.
Describe the purpose of the brand and its target audience
Frive’s reinvigorated mission is to help all Brits thrive with healthy, high-quality meals delivered direct to their doorsteps. Whether that’s the nurses on night shift, the busy parents or just anyone looking for convenient, healthy deliciousness.
What was your thinking behind the branding solution?
We decided to tap into the health-conscious and purposeful elements of the company. At the heart of the rebrand sits a new distinctive asset for the brand: a simple food tray like the ones that it uses for delivery.
This provides the basis for a comprehensive and easy-to-use graphic system – acting as the core distinctive element in the logo, a cropping device to hold imagery and messaging, as patterns across socials, providing the basis for a playful and flexible icon set and appearing functionally across various UI elements.
Distinctive assets, that the brand can use again and again to make people remember them, are at the core of our brand design approach. This tray device helps to build mental availability, makes the identity easy to implement, and also differentiates Frive as a 'ready-to-heat' meal brand and not a meal prep business.
Alongside the graphics, it was important for us to develop a daring tone of voice that would empower Frive and draw attention to its wider mission – creating a food system that's fair and transparent, where everyone has access to ethically-sourced, quality food.
Did you learn anything new during the project?
We learn with every project! We’ve done a lot of work in food - both with high growth CPG businesses and governments/charities who are seeking to change behaviour around food. So we already knew a lot about the space. But this project had a radical impact on our view of food – specifically the need to move away from ultra-processed.
Obviously we knew heavily processed foods weren’t great for us - anyone who’s been on the internet in the last few years will have witnessed the growing conversation around this topic. But delving deep into the issues, and looking at all the steps Frive is taking to create the best possible meals, was a revelation. I still have a few Coke Zeros a day (sorry mum) but my eating habits have changed significantly, for the better.
What was the biggest challenge? How did you overcome it?
The nuance of the message. We needed to build a brand that would communicate food + delivery + health + deliciousness, while making it explicitly clear that it’s not a meal kit like Gousto or Mindful Chef.
It’s a prepped meal that you can heat and eat in minutes. No chopping, no cooking, no washing up. As I’ve said, this challenge inspired the distinctive asset that shapes and dominates the entire identity system: the food tray.
What kit/tools/software were used to create it?
From a software POV, the usual - Figma and the gang. We collaborated with Kilotype on the wordmark and subtle tweaks to the typeface.
And we collaborated with our pals at Dream Factory on photography – Frive subscribed to DF during the project, and used that space and offer to create the sun-drenched, wholesome photography you see throughout the brand.
What details are you most proud of and why?
The system as a whole. Nick, our Creative Director, built such a seamless system around the tray. From the tray shape itself - taken directly from their packaging - to the wordmark where it dots the ‘i’, to the many, many, many ways it’s used throughout the identity, it just feels so satisfying. A Distinctive Asset at its best.
What visual influences fuelled your solution?
It was all the product and the produce. We wanted to highlight the vibrancy of the ingredients that Frive uses, and the nature that they come from. The entire brand is designed to showcase Frive’s distinctive, delicious offer to the world so every single part of it, from the tray to the palette is inspired by their meals.
What do you hope it achieves for the brand?
Growth. It’s such an incredible service, with a great quality product. It already appeals to people with an active interest in health, wellness, exercise, nutrition. In fact, it’s the UK’s highest rated meal delivery subscription.
But the new brand is designed to scale that appeal - to pull people in who aren’t necessarily considering all those things in fine detail every day, people who just want delicious, healthy food quickly and simply. And frankly, who doesn’t?
What would you do differently if you could do it over again?
Honestly? It was a pretty smooth process. We had a great relationship with the team – there was a lot of trust and good energy on all sides. We moved at pace, but had the time to go deep and finesse. We had a shared ambition: to build a brand that would create a new era for the business.
And we’re really pleased with the outcome - that wholesome, satisfying feeling in the brand mirrors the exact experience you get with Frive. It’s worth noting that, because we don’t just do brand work - we do campaigns, marketing, PR concepts too - we never see the brand launch as the end, it’s the beginning. So I wouldn’t want to do it over again – just focus on the future and make Frive the global success it can and should be.
Credit list for the work?
- Among Equals
- Nick May: Creative Director
- Meg Jordan: Senior Creative Strategist
- Rob Campbell: Designer
- Rachel Su: Design Director
- Fee Walter: Senior Designer
- Jac Melling: Ops Director
- Dan Jones: Creative Services Director
- Emily Jeffrey-Barrett: Co-founder
- Frive
- George Taylor: Founder
- Danny Barry: Brand Director
- Harriet Lowe: Senior Brand Manager
- Siobhan North: Head of Growth
- Naomi Haeger: Brand Performance Manager
- Jen Gardner: Creative Lead
