“Organic” — a new corporate brand design for Cookpad

Cookpad has launched “Organic”, a new corporate brand design to differentiate our recipe service, from our overall corporate operations. In an interview with Daisuke Sugita — the Creative Director behind this project — we look into the background of this project, and what this means for the future of Cookpad.

First of all, what was the motive behind this project, and what was the issue you were trying to address?

So, Cookpad started out as an online recipe service; something we are still well known for today. The original Cookpad logo, colour schemes and fonts were all designed with the audience of the recipe service in mind. However, as Cookpad has grown as a company, and ventured into new pastures, our corporate audience has grown significantly to include potential investors, government stakeholders and research institutions. As such, we knew we needed a brand concept for our corporate operations — core values, design language, fonts etc.

Could you elaborate on how you set out to do this?

So, the end goal was to make sure every Cookpad employee (including those who would potentially join us in the future) could speak correctly and coherently about the company. To create a corporate brand that would achieve this goal, we interviewed the Japanese management team, as well as employees in different career stages and age ranges, asking what they felt they represented. Through these interviews, we decided to develop a brand concept that “embraces and supports the culture and values associated with food, as chosen by the creators of food around the world.”

The brand design we’ve come up with to embody these values is called “Organic”, and the original font we’ve created alongside it is “Cookpad Sans” — and we’ve already started to incorporate these designs and fonts across our corporate website and offices.

You have worked very passionately on this project. What do you hope it will bring to Cookpad?

All the great brands of the world not only have iconic designs and fonts synonymous with the brand, but a design language that embodies the corporate culture, and expresses the values that drive their employees. It’s a rare opportunity, trying to create an iconic design language for a global company, so yes, a lot of passion went into this. I hope that “Organic”, “Cookpad Sans”, and the updated brand concept can help bring clarity, direction, and coherence to the company — and I also hope these energetic colours and harmonious fonts will all come to forge an identity for Cookpad, and the gastronomic culture it represents.

Plans for the future? What’s next for this Corporate Brand Design?

Our aim is to circulate this design across all our global offices, starting with our Japan Headquarters, so that everyone at Cookpad can embody and incorporate our mission, vision, values into their lifestyles and corporate operations — creating a strong identity amongst all our employees. This may not be a simple task, and will require time — but I will strive to continue building the foundations for a coherent brand design.

Daisuke Sugita — the Creative Director behind this project

I look forward to sharing additional content which I hope will support everyone at Cookpad in continuing to this.

Thanks for talking to us!

My pleasure.

And so, this concludes the interview. The launch of “Organic”, as well as the new fonts and office designs, will be important steps as Cookpad increases its presence on the world stage.