Tofurky Brand Guide 2020

Brand guide

how story works

Marketing is all the stories we tell about our products.

Our brand is the story we make those products about.

how story works

The reason humans have told stories since the dawn of time is because story is the most effective way to guide behavior. The stories we tell ourselves—that we’re good parents, bad cooks, effective leaders—steer our everyday decisions. For brands, story works the same way. The stories we share with coworkers, clients and creative partners shape our choices and keep us all moving in the same direction.

A powerful brand story is the North Star that guides everything from the people we hire to the graphics on our packaging. It makes day-to-day decision-making easier, reminds us all why hard work is worth doing, and inspires everyone from longtime supporters to new customers not just to buy our products, but to believe in our brand.

This guide will help everyone at Tofurky live by one cohesive story that reflects a single truth.

our truth

Happiness is when the food you want to eat, the food you should eat, and the food you do eat, are all the same food.

our story

Our story is simple.

Taste buds don’t listen to reason. They listen to nachos. You try to cut back on the carbs, they eat half a tray of cupcakes. You swear off meat and they nibble absentmindedly at the sausage platter. Taste buds have no steering wheel. They have no turn signals, no brakes. Our brains know what to do. Our hearts understand right from wrong. But they’ll never be able to steer our taste buds in any direction other than yummy.

Sometimes, when we’re feeling responsible, we eat the kind of food we should. More often than we care to admit, we eat what we want even though we know we shouldn’t.

And every so often, we’ll settle for food we don’t like and know we shouldn’t eat. But somewhere, deep down inside, we all know happiness is when the food we want to eat, the food we should eat and the food we do eat are all the same food. This is truly satisfying food. This is the kind of food we make at Tofurky.

Our Mission

Tofurky is tasty food for plant-eaters, meat-eaters and people who resist labels.

Our mission is to make great food everyone can enjoy, and do it with respect for people, animals and the planet.

Our vision

We want to erase the myth that people have to make a choice: to enjoy tasty food or take care of themselves and the planet. We can do both.

That’s how we’ll get to a happy, sustainable future that respects everyone.

Our vision is a thriving planet, a generation of people embracing friendlier eating, and a business that is contributing to society rather than taking from it.

Our brand statement

At Tofurky, we don’t all have exactly the same beliefs about diet, sustainability, or what goes best with french fries. We’re not a monoculture (and we like it that way). But we can all get behind our mission of respect: whether it’s respect for our shared planet, for all species, for human health, or for our community and workforce.

Respect is why we do what we do.

Our Brand Values

we are

best friend of the taste bud friendly to buy and prepare a friend of the body a friend of the planet a friend of the movement

Our Brand Values / Tasty

best friend of the taste bud There are two kinds of food: the kind we eat for fun and the kind we eat as a means to an end — be it lower cholesterol levels or a more sustainable planet. We want people to see Tofurky as a food they want to eat, not a food they should eat. We do this by always talking about the pleasures of enjoying good food. No matter what diet we identify with (vegan, vegetarian, flexitarian, omnivore, whatever), we all have taste buds telling us what we want to eat. Tofurky’s job is to talk to those taste buds.

Our Brand Values / convenient

friendly to buy and prepare Tofurky is a friend who respects your time and wants to make life a little easier for you.

It doesn’t challenge you with obscure ingredients or intricate, aspirational recipes. It feels as familiar as a fridge full of hot dogs and deli slices. Getting Tofurky on the table is as easy as tossing it in a frying pan or sticking it between some bread. The overarching message is that Tofurky is a go-to staple for those saddled with feeding a hungry crew.

Our Brand Values / HEALTHY

friend of the body We believe there’s an ideal balance between respecting your body and having fun with your food. Tofurky products are meant to be a super tasty part of our customers’ diets, whether they’re enthusiastic eaters who live for chili cheese tots, or health-conscious athletes who have plant-based meat as an occasional treat. And if they choose an indulgent burger made with plants over one made with meat and dairy, there’s an upside not just for the environment, but for their health.

Our Brand Values / sustainable

friend of the planet We always talk taste first, but right behind it is our mission of sustainability. Plant-based eating has the power to conserve our land and water resources, and reduce waste, pollution and carbon emissions. Tofurky is about popularizing sustainable plant-based eating for everyone, and making our foods with responsible practices that respect the planet we all share.

Our Brand Values / conscious

friend of the movement We started small, but Tofurky has now grown into a position of leadership in the plant-based food category. And we’re not just out to root for ourselves. We’re here to cheer on all plant-based brands—because the more brands that succeed, the greater the changes for our society and our environment. We think of them not as competitors, but as peers in a movement to bring respect, sustainability and ethics to the grocery aisles.

visual design

it’s a lot of work to be the friendliest food on the plate.

A brand is more than lively colors, typography or tasty photography - it’s a connection.

The components of this system can help create that connection with our audience and tell our stories.

We can’t cover everything here, but wanted to build a guide to point you in the right direction and let you know what’s important to us. Above all else, we’ve put this guide together to reflect the change we want to bring about through thoughtful, sustainable business that changes the way people eat. We also hope this guide helps you have fun with whatever you are creating.

visual design / logo tab

the logo tab Our logo is iconic. It’s easily recognizable in stores and legible at any size. That’s why it hasn’t changed much over the last 30 years. We’ve only recently updated how it is used and the tagline attached to it. The Tab brings a freshness to the logo while allowing it to still be flexible and help us be more consistent with how it’s used across all media. Now that we’ve developed a wider, more complete brand system around it, the logo doesn’t have to do all the heavy lifting.

Primary Logo: In most cases we use a cropped tab version of the logo that sits at the edge of a design.

visual design / logo tab

Secondary Logo: In unique cases, the logo is used so small we omit the tagline.

Reversed Logo: Use color from base inside logo type and tagline.

Floating Logo: Available for rare instances when we aren’t able to align the top of the logo with the top edge of a layout.

visual design / banner

the Banner The Banner has become our favorite go-to symbol as an alternative to our classic Logo Tab. It was developed along with all our other illustrated assets, so it sometimes fits more naturally into layouts and designs where the other elements are illustrated. Think of this as a more casual form of identifying a message or story as coming from Tofurky - not a replacement for the Logo Tab. It’s great to use in ads, display design, apparel or motion graphics when the main purpose is to communicate our brand story.

Like we mentioned earlier, the Logo Tab is iconic and especially important when we’re speaking to an audience unfamiliar with Tofurky. Packaging, business presentations and other more official types of communication always use our Logo Tab.

visual design / typography

typography Our fonts speak to our values just as much as our logo or any other piece of our brand, so it’s important to use the right ones in the right situation. All of our fonts are meant to enhance each story we tell - from the back of packaging to headlines on our website. They have a soft, organic feel that compliments our illustrations and colors. They’re bold, but not over the top.

As much as we love our font set, always simplify and replace typography with headline illustrations if available. You’ll find a list of applicable uses with each font example.

visual design / typography

True North Black

True North Black is our primary typeface. Letterspacing between -22 to -55 depending on the size of the type. Leading nice and tight.

Applications: Main Titles, Sub Titles and Headlines. Also used to emphasize brief brand messages like our Mission or Brand Truth.

ABCDEFGHIJKLmNO PQRSTUVWXYZ 1234567890

visual design / typography

Brandon Medium

Brandon Medium is our Primary Body Copy typeface. Letterspacing -11. Leading nice and tight. We also use Bold and Black versions to highlight important text. Italic of all versions is used as well. Applications: Primary Body Copy

AaBbCcDdEeFfGgHhIiJjKkLlMm NnOoPpQqRrSsTtUuVvWwXxYyZz 1234567890 Tofurky is tasty food for plant-eaters, meat-eaters and people who resist labels. Our mission is to make great food everyone can enjoy, and do it with respect for people, animals and the planet.

Tofurky is tasty food for plant-eaters, meat-eaters and people who resist labels. Our mission is to make great food everyone can enjoy, and do it with respect for people, animals and the planet.

visual design / typography

true north rough black

Product Packaging ONLY. True North Rough Black is our title typeface for Packaging. Please do not use in any other applications.

Letterspacing between -33 to -55 depending on the size of the type. Leading nice and tight. Applications: Packaging ONLY

ABCDEFGHIJKLmNO PQRSTUVWXYZ 1234567890

visual design / color system

color system We’ve developed a simple, compact range of colors that compliment each other and can be used in numerous combinations. This group is meant to grab your attention whether it’s on shelf or at an event - and plays an important lead role in our design system. When paired correctly with our unique illustrations, we can draw our audience in for a closer look.

visual design / color system

0c 0m 0y 0k

75c 68m 68y 90k

50c 0m 10y 0k

5c 1m 93y 0k

70c 0m 70y 0k

50c 0m 100y 0k

0c 90m 90y 0k

60c 90m 0y 10k

0c 60m 80y 30k

0c 30m 90y 10k

#FFFFFF

#010101

#74CEE2

#F9EA26

#45B97C

#8DC63F

#EF4230

#74388B

#B66131

#E5A82F

PMS Black 6 U

Pantone 310 U

Pantone 3955 U

Pantone 7482 U

Pantone 368 U

Pantone Red 032 U

Pantone 2612 U

Pantone 160 U

Pantone 131 U

PMS Black 3 C

Pantone 310 C

Pantone 394 C

Pantone 7480 C

Pantone 368 C

Pantone 7626 C

Pantone 2612 C

Pantone 160 C

Pantone 131 C

99

99

99

visual design / illustrations

illustrations Our growing library of hand-crafted illustrations are used to add that extra visual detail to all the work we do - and make it completely our own. The character and ingredient illustrations are weird and interesting. We like that about them. They are meant to add a recognizable identity to the brand and be just plain fun. The typographic brand messages can be used in place of headlines or as iconic visual elements that stand on their own. Let either be the focal point of a layout and see how much energy they bring. There are many more where these came from.

visual design / illustrations

visual design / illustrations

visual design / illustrations

visual design / illustrations

visual design / photography

photography To broaden our reach beyond plant-based eaters, our photography needs to communicate warmth, optimism, ease and accessibility, while at the same time appealing to everyday middle-class American meat eaters. Tofurky is all about backyard barbecues and food cart culture, not wine pairings or farm-to-fork dinners.

We depend on deliberate, artful food styling that is casual, unfussy and indulgent. Minimal plating and props help us stay focused on the food. Confident, bold, bright colors make up our background surfaces. And please, make a mess! Spilled sauces and sprinkled toppings are ok - as long as the shot is drool-worthy. Steer clear of esoteric ingredients you can’t find in your neighborhood grocery store, overcomplicated recipes and fussy plating.

visual design / photography

visual design / photography

visual design / photography

visual design / photography

visual design / photography

visual design examples

visual design examples

visual design examples

visual design examples

visual design examples

visual design examples