Gkazas, Oil in the family

The branding and packaging design clearly generated added value and potential. The history of the Dutch-Greek Gkazas family is now much easier to communicate. It is an attractive brand with a sympathetic soul. The main goal of Gkazas Olive Oil is to bring the Greek lifestyle regarding the usage of olive in the first place to the Netherlands. Educating people about olive oil and how to use it.

Gkazas was able to achieve an unprecedented growth in sales following the restyling of the brand, and has since conquered a solid position on the market. The number of sales outlets increased to currently a little over 150, including organic supermarkets and more than 70 restaurants.

Various media and food blogs, including daily newspapers like Trouw, De Telegraaf and Noordhollands Dagblad, and magazines such as Grazia, The Dieline, Trendhunter, Business Insider, Jamie Oliver Magazine, Culy, Manners, Froot, Want, Famme, Beautify and Bedrock all published features on Gkazas.

New retailers were found: De Kweker, VhC Jongens, ADAM toren, SLA, Woodstock 69, Marleen kookt and De Buurtboer.

With regard to creativity, putting this traditional brand on the map was a wonderful challenge. We learned a lot more about the great history of Greek culture and their professional way of producing olive oil.

Analysing the competition and comparing brands, we recognised the need for a revolution in terms of design and started from scratch with a fresh, modern approach. The iconic logo depicts an olive dripping oil, against the blue and white colours of the Greek flag symbolising the brand’s heritage, striking a perfect balance between the traditional and contemporary.

The logo’s final touches portray the brand’s history and tradition of making authentic, pure olive oil. Inspired by its Greek roots, the bottles and canisters are olive green with a minimalist olive and limited lettering.

Based on a strong logo and brand essence (“Oil in the family”), we built up the brand’s visual communication, brought to life in the photos of the Gkazas family and several communication items.

To support the brand’s identity, we offer a few words of Greek wisdom, inspired by Plato: ‘Good olive oil is half the battle’, Socrates: ‘Good oil brings good people together’ and Hippocrates: ‘Let olive oil be your medicine’, printed on the back of each bottle. The packaging options provide an answer for every consumer’s needs.

The Dutch-Greek Gkazas family produces olive oil on its own land, in the mountains of Crete. Stemming from of a genuine love for the product, only the most authentic, pure and natural methods are used to make this oil. Every winter, the family harvests and presses the olives (see the brand movie). The extra virgin olive oil thus produced is unfiltered, bio-organic, cold-pressed, contains no additives and is never mixed with other oils.

The challenge was to develop a new full-blown brand identity and packaging design that will bring the family brand to the next level. The visual solution should be translated into a variety of communication tools. Our aim is to provide a strong and professional answer to the growing number of questions from customers and retailers in the Netherlands and Belgium.

The new look and feel should visualise a distinctive family brand producing high-quality organic olive oil.

The complete range of Gkazas Olive Oil products was finished in 2016. Some bothles where released sooner.