Grand Foods (otherwise known as Kahvecioglu) is an importer of Turkish foods – a wholesale and retail distributor in Campbellfield. Their clients include Coles, Woolworths, IGA, Foodworks as well as restaurants and food markets. As the only graphic designer in a stand alone department for this FMCG distributer, I created the personality and look for the company, coming up with content and design for the output of flyers, posters, print ads, marketing materials, catalogues, the company website and blog, the ecommerce store and social media for 1500+ products and 80+ brands. I created over 74,000 digital files and catalogued them in a number of libraries for company reference.

The Grand Foods ecommerce store included thousands of products and extensive research and copywriting. Over a period of a year, I translated Turkish text into English while adding more context and usage in blurbs so that English speaking Australians could understand what the products were used for. I also translated all ingredients into English to comply with law and food regulations. There was a lot of liaison with Turkish staff to understand and relay each product’s main sellpoints and benefits and why each product was different to its cousin. One of Grand Foods’ major aims was to widen their target audience by communicating to Westerners and the broader Australian community.

The Grand Foods catalogue was an extensive and ever-changing document of 120+ pages handed out to wholesale customers and the sales team. Rapid changes in stock and supply meant that lots of new products were added each month, with sections changing around and frequent reprinting occurring. Over 823 products were included in the catalogue and nearly all of them were photographed and clipped by me. The catalogue was very successful in getting the complete range in front of wholesale clients and several spinoff catalogues with cherry picked products were created for national clients such as Coles and Woolworths.

An important aspect of this role was to learn about Turkish culture and religious holidays for use in advertising, as well as an extensive education (learned on the job) on Turkish food, cooking, events, traditions, holidays and recipes. My co-workers were delightful people, only too happy to teach me all about it!

The exporting Turkish companies dealing with Grand Foods ranged from enormous Coca-Cola like corporates mass producing across Turkey to smaller, gourmet brands and some Australian brands as well. Ali Khaveci sourced products for the finest taste and quality and the difference was really quite noticeable, along with some improved nutritional content in the foods compared to existing Australian food brands. In order to de-mystify brands to Westerners while continuing the advertising in the Turkish community, I created distinct looks for many of the brands which were later used by them in their own marketing.

Advertising for the retail store in Campbellfield took the form of quarterly specials published as A0 posters and giveaway flyers, as well as Leader advertising. Occasionally, there were some labels and food packaging to design, though working within the tightest of budgets and strictest of deadlines meant these involved basic communication rather than elaborate restructuring or researched projects.

Social involvement broadened my horizons as I blogged, photographed, wrote content and engaged the local community in such events as the Fine Food Expo (Melbourne Convention & Exhibition Centre), the Turkish Pazar Festival (Queen Victoria Market), benefit information about new products, merchandising high points, customer-driven initiatives and relevant, featured events from the local community alongside customer testimonials and tales. Social media included Facebook, Linked In, Twitter, YouTube and Google+.

• Photography
• Print
• Social
• Visual Identity
• Web

Grand Foods Website