The Ethical Butcher
In 2018 Glen co-founded The Ethical Butcher with meat trader Farshad Kazemian and collaborated with Ash to design the identity for the brand
The Brief
The Ethical Butcher is an online e-commerce brand that set out to disrupt the meat industry through a no nonsense approach to brand message that challenges the impact animals can have when farmed regeneratively.
Design & Graphics
Glen and Ash wanted the visual identity for the brand to be bold and very modern yet have a nod back to the very very ancient when humanity was more in tune with nature
Extensive research into pre-history symbolism brought them to ancient celtic runes, these symbols were used before written language to convey messages that often have no direct translation into a single word.
The symbol above this the fehu, an ancient rune that symbolises wealth in cattle and movement of both ideas and people, it was perfect but needed modernising.
Starting with the font family of ‘futura’ that had come to symbolise luxury through use by fashion brands such as Louis Vuitton and Dolce & Gabbana the logo was created in its stacked form with the verticals on certain letters trimmed at an angle to match the shape of a butchers knife, the proportional rules of futura were applied to the fehu.
Photographic style
The brand identified a more urban consumer and this is reflected in the customer base 4 years on so the decision was made to move the imagery away from the country farmhouse kitchen easthetic and to develop a more masculine and low key minimalistic style
Beef heart e-comms image from The Ethical Bucther’s website
Packaging
To differentiate the categories of meat Ash created icons based on ancient runes
From top left. Cow, Pig, Deer, Sheep, Bird