Master Chef Eyvind Hellstrøm
People Deserve Better!
Norway’s most known chef, Eyvind Hellstrøm, does more than just make great food. He has a strong and genuine drive to improve people’s everyday relation to food.
Through a holistic approach of understanding all current and coming initiatives we created a strategy together with Team Hellstrøm that would ensure that his company’s philosophy would be heard. And for this to happen continuously – both in products as well as in services – as new ideas and opportunities arrive.
When Hellstrøm after 27 years left his two-star Michelin restaurant Bagatelle, his reputation was one of a master chef for the few and wealthy. How could he go from that position to use his knowledge for the good of ordinary families?
We proposed that he clearly states his philosophy – and then create products, content and services supports it.
The philosophy, that people deserve better, was a natural result of the empathy he found travelling the country, meeting ordinary families who struggled with making food (through the television show Hellstrøm rydder opp - hjemme).
When we first met Hellstrøm we started out by mapping his many current initiatives, to see the whole range of products and services from a brand point of view. We needed to ensure they were all helping us to drive the brand – as well as the capitalization mechanisms – in the same direction.
What this mapping exercise also helped us do, was to see opportunities.
Among these, seeing the potential for new relations between old initiatives – and how digital and infrastructure is key to making strategy happen. This led to a systematic way of both aligning the current initiatives, as well as a way of introducing new products and services in this ecosystem – the world of Hellstrøm. The products, content and services we created together, would still have a wide range: from tv shows, cooking books, kitchen products to travel guides. But they would all leave no question; that there was only one chef in the kitchen: you.
Better recognition
A consistent identity throughout the products and services was defined as an immediate need. Focusing on the name, rather than starting from scratch, we built the brand through a symbol. We found typographic inspiration in the country and cuisine closest to Hellstrøm’s heart and stomach: France.
With products being the core surface for the identity, we developed a flexible logo system to fit the many, and often very specific, requirements for good reproduction in a large and demanding range of applications.
The idea was for every application of the logo on a product to engage in a conversation with the people who had the experience and knowledge of the production - the process and materials, to ensure optimal results every time.
Logo fundament.
An elegant, hand drawn, wordmark with a lot of personality — shaping the Ø in Hellstrøm — as a master chef’s knife.
Logo cast in iron.
Requirements: 1,25mm stroke width maximum, minimum 1mm distance between paralell lines. 45mm maximum width.
Logo sandblasted in glass.
Requirements: 0.2mm maximum width,20.8mm total width. Stencil.
Better restaurant experiences
In 2006 Hellstrøm published a book a list of over 500 restaurants in 30 cities in Europe. Together with Team Hellstrøm we saw the potential of adding a digital angle to it, but also in the mix between the analogue and the digital. The future editions will feature restaurants from all over the world, both as a digital service as well as a printed book – with a twist.
We designed the book where the sewn-in green sheets of paper (usually perceived as an additional expence), made different languages and updated information (from the continously updated website) for every reprint of the book possible at a lower cost — as well as adding a new level of quality to the book experience. Digital print in a offset-quality made smaller numbers as well as targeted audiences (company gifts, sponsorships etc) possible.
We found that the book industry still works within a very traditional model. One that limits the possibilities of working with content: distribution through different channels, regions and languages – as well as partnerships, sponsors and publishing in other printed media. And so we created a digital platform that could enable just that.
The website
The website is truly where the "Good Adresses" service and content blossoms - and it is the very heart of the chef’s website. Our approach was for the content to really take advantage of the medium, not only to make it accessible digitally. We created a database of the restaurants’ homepage, Facebook page (since a lot of restaurants still only have flash pages that don’t work on mobile), phone numbers you can click to call, and gps positions for planning and getting there - to name a few. We also explored capitalisation methods such as links to services for booking a table, and mapping destinations to travel agencies apis for future co-operations.
We hope we managed to make Hellstrøms website a window into this great chefs philosophy and personality. Where you can go and see what have made Hellstrøm who he is, what inspires him and which products he thinks are the best. Because we all deserve better food experiences. Don´t we?
Better products
Through the television show "Hellstrøm rydder opp", Hellstrøm has for several years been travelling around Norway, helping out ordinary families with their day-to-day challenges of making food. He saw that some days people just don't have the time or energy to make food properly. Then they should have a better alternative than what you can find in the shops today. Without perservatives or additives. Products that taste good. These ready-made meals, a series of 11 of the chef's own recipes, are now in the shops and selling very well. We designed the packaging.
Kitchen products, like all product categories, range from environmentally irresponsible products (so cheap they will soon break and have to be thrown away) to the absurdly expensive and niche. Together with Team Hellstrøm, Scandinavias biggest retailer of kitchenware – Jernia, and industrial designers Permafrost, a set of products were chosen. The test would always be if ordinary people with ordinary salaries would find spending just a little more than usual, genuinely feel like the product was a good investment and brought value either to their cooking or appreciation of food.
We are just getting started. In the years to come, we hope to continue to work closely with Team Hellstrøm making sure all products and services come together to build the brand. As well as ensuring people get the great food experiences they deserve!
