Take the world of insect cuisine and sell it through design and experience. This involves creating a brand identity and name, as well as method(s) of exposure. This could be through a restaurant, a pop-up shop, a pack design, a food festival, a recipe book, an app or all of the above. As part of the Bluemarlin Spark brief. 

Insects are thought of as unusual to eat in Britain, whereas in other parts of the world it is part of their daily diet. Insects are highly nutritious due to the amount of protein they contain and low levels of fat. In addition to this, despite what some people may think due to the disgust and ick factor they carry, they are also really tasty. So why not replace insects with other sources of protein and create delicious dishes with them too?

I created the brand Grubchef which sells’prepared to cook, prepared to enjoy; nutritious and delicious; Grasshoppers, Crickets, Mealworms and Buffalo worms. A food festival will be held which encourages consumers to introduce insects into their diets by trying insects already cooked and incorporated into small dishes. A menu of the variety of insects and food being sampled will be displayed for browsing and a recipe will come with the dish that they try. 

This is aimed to encourage visitors to purchase packaged and already prepared batches of insects that are also sold at the festival. The insect food products come attached with a selection of recipe cards based on the specific insect, promoting the idea that they can be easy to cook yourself at home and can be just as tasty as other food if you cook them in a similar way. 

Whilst at the festival there will be a chance to sign up to the Grubchef app which can be downloaded on to your phone. Here, you can order more Grubchef prepared to cook insect food to your home as well as browse recipes in which you can choose to be delivered alongside the insects. The recipes can then be collected and at hand when wanted, and they will continue to be updated on the app to keep consumers interested. 

The brand name is based on the concept that insects can be incorporated into meals just like any other type of ingredients. The word ‘chef’ communicates this idea of cooking. I included a visual of a bug to effectively communicate the brands products.

I have differentiated each insect through colours on the packaging and recipe cards which include green for grasshoppers, yellow for crickets, orange for mealworms and dark pink for buffalo worms. 

Black is used for all text to ensure the print on the brown packaging and information on the recipe cards are visible. 

The insect food comes packaged in brown paper bags, with the visible recipes attached through the use of pegs. These elements create an earthy, honest and homely feel to the brand. 

The coloured leaves are used down the side of the packaging as well as on the front and back of the recipe cards, 

The print of the pan is used on the front of the packaging to convey the idea that the insects are being cooked on the pan, as they can be seen through a transparent part of the packaging.

The texture produced by lino printing has been used for both the logo as well as the pan, providing the brand with hand made/hand cooking concept.

I created a food menu that will be displayed at the festival, listing the variety of sample food to choose from. The choices are the same as the recipes provided. I transferred the brands idenity across both the food menu and the box that the food samples come in, using a brown card with a wood effect, wooden pegs and a wooden fork. The leaves will also be printed onto the food paper.