ABOUT

The delightful crew at Colour Mill wanted an identity that would reflect the vibrance of the food colouring products (pigments, not dyes!) they offer. We whipped up a top-to-toe rebrand that’s as fun, exciting and enticing to look at as the things their customers create and cements their status as the best, brightest and boldest in the biz.

What's all this then?
Colour Mill is an Australia-based, market-leading food colouring brand that’s been making mess in the kitchen for more than 30 years. In a category filled with subpar products, they pride themselves on their specialty pigments (rather than dyes), which achieve unmatched creative results for their incredibly dedicated, cake-making and baking customer base.

Any insights?
The cake-making and baking community is vivid and vibrant. They’re dedicated to delightful creations, rich in colour and joy, and yet the majority of the brands providing their products are dull and uninspiring. And whether they’re hobbyist bakers or it’s their full-time business, they take cakes seriously — they’re not an afterthought, they’re a work of art, and they want their decorating products to deliver.

And what seems to be problem?
Though the quality of Colour Mill already made them a household name among cakers and bakers, their branding didn’t pack the same punch their products do. Wanting to set themselves apart from the subpar, they needed an identity do-over that would express what they’ve got to offer — premium, playful and kaleidoscopic with colour. And, as a large amount of their customer conversion comes from social media (cake-decorating Insta and TikTok is a world of its own), they wanted to give their dedicated community products that look as beautiful on the bench as they do in their baked goods. ​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

So how'd you go about it?
It made sense for the brand to reflect what its community creates, so it began with the idea of “colour play” — a concept that celebrates the joy, play, mess and finesse throughout the cake-decorating process, from kitchen counter to baking tray to final touches. We wanted the brand system to be expressive, imaginative and flexible, allowing it to reflect the spectrum of baked goods — from sophisticated and elevated right through to sweet, sugary chaos.

The cherry on top of the brand system
Among all the brand elements, the logo acts as an anchor. It needed to speak to everyone from hobby bakers to wholesale bakeries while maintaining the playful personality of the brand. It’s made from a custom typeface — a bold, condensed san serif with subtle appendage quirks that imbue a little life. It’s a solid base — friendly, approachable, always open to decoration, but clean enough to talk business when it needs to.