The 9 Best Brands We Saw At Expo East 2019

Last week, the food industry’s largest east coast tradeshow, ExpoEast, hosted over 29,000 attendees with more than 1,550 brands. That’s a lot of packaging design. Be it plant-based everything, CBD cure-alls or egg-based staples, ExpoEast showed off just how inventive the food industry can be, and how creative its brands can get. 

With our bellies full of you-name-it-free cookies and our skin lathered up with CBD topicals, we curated yet another list of our favorite brands from the show.

Pure Batch

Pure Batch might as well be renamed to Pure Bliss. The branding and design for these vegan, gluten-and-soy free cookies and brownies are notably stark, but simultaneously warm and inviting. All too perfect for clean, minimal ingredient indulgence. Keep slaying, Pure batch queen.

Pitaya+

First off, everyone should eat dragonfruit.

Secondly, talk about a redesign! You need merely visit the website to see the old look. The transformation is remarkable featuring a vibrant, pink logo with energetic background illustrations that live out the tagline of “Illuminating Plant Power.”

FatSnax

Talk about another overhaul. Fat Snax is bringing the punch and living out its “Fat Yeah!” tagline through design with their keto-friendly, low-carb cookies. The brand has adopted a rich navy blue with appetizing photography and a mesmerizing ripple pattern to share the word that fat is fit. Mic drop.

Made Coffee

Nothing makes coffee better than good design. Except of course if you pair that design with crazy inventions like lemonade or chocolate milk. Made’s core line of canned coffee, alongside the Cold Brew Con Leche line, brings both a contemporary and cheeky look to the often stuffy or overly-seriously coffee space. Buh-bye, boring barista.

Force Of Nature

With a strong statement like “THE BEST MEAT ON THE PLANET for THE PLANET” you’d also hope to see some of the best design on the planet—you know, to further the cause of regenerative agriculture and meat that’s good for the planet. Boy, does this brand do it in spades. Each piece of illustration is entirely custom, and let’s just take a second to admire that typography. If only you could mount that as a trophy above your fireplace.

Karma

Karma has managed to take a commodity product like cashews and turn it into a must-have. Fun, colorful, lively, and inspired, these minimally processed nuts have maximum personality.

Pipcorn

This SharkTank darling has a fresh coat of paint as it starts its mighty expansion into other snacking formats beyond heirloom popcorn—we see you cheese balls! The new packaging design maintains the kraft equity while adding new, geometric illustrations and a host of callouts to bring out the point of difference. Snack on!

Whoa! Dough

The next time a client asks you to create something with more “pop” show ‘em this. A bold, energetic wordmark with a flat and contrasting color palette brings home both the edge and the flavor of these cookie dough bars. Plus, who doesn’t love a name with great alliteration?

Simmer 

Simple. Colorful. Modern. Everything you want in food these days is now delivered in this line of pasta sauces, so aptly named. Plus, who has the time to make gravy on the reg? Sometimes you need a sauce that’s ready to go in minutes. Skip the pasta and just drink it (don’t @ me Italians Mad at Food).