CROUDOH

STRATEGY

Michelle made her first batch of croutons from the last of a sourdough loaf ten minutes before guests arrived, and they became the most talked-about thing on the table. The category she was stepping into had barely moved since the 1970s. On one side were wellness brands selling croutons on what they left out, and on the other were snack brands arguing croutons should leave the salad behind entirely. We put Croudoh in the wide-open middle, as a flavor-first pantry staple with no opinion about where you eat it. To earn a spot on the open shelf next to the good olive oil, the identity had to feel made by a person, so we drew all of it by hand: a custom wordmark and display font, a C monogram, four pattern illustrations that give each flavor its own personality without breaking the family resemblance, and a little crouton man who waves from the corner of the bag. The palette borrows from the dinner table, with colors named Balsamic, Split Pea, Pasta Sauce, and Cab Sav, and the voice guidelines include one rule worth keeping: if a line would sound strange out loud at a dinner party, rewrite it.