Featured image for Chris Paul and Gopuff Launch Plant-Based Snack 'Good Eat'n' With Design From Utendahl Creative

Chris Paul and Gopuff Launch Plant-Based Snack 'Good Eat'n' With Design From Utendahl Creative

by Rudy Sanchez on 09/14/2022 | 5 Minute Read

Last year, the quick delivery service Gopuff announced a partnership with 12-time NBA all-star Chris Paul to bring more plant-based options to its platform, especially from Black-owned brands. Paul (also known as CP3) adopted a vegan diet in 2019 and has attributed his plant-based lifestyle to improved health and athletic performance.

Today, a new line of plant-forward snacks called Good Eat’n launches on Gopuff. The brand, co-founded by Paul and Gopuff, is a range of sweet and savory snacks with branding and packaging designed by Utendahl Creative (UC). 

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While the brand is entirely plant-based, the flavors are nothing but stone-cold snacking classics, like nacho cheese and cinnamon sugar. 

“Good Eat’n will inherently have a very loyal, interested, and curious plant-based audience who is always seeking and looking for new options," says Madison Utendahl, founder and CCO for UC. "But because of its taste profile, it's comparable to some of the most Americana-fed, well-known snacks. We also believe that this audience will have first-time, plant-based eaters who learn about the brand and are compelled by the design, strategy, and execution with Chris Paul and might be entering the category for the first time. So we tried to think of Good Eat’n for the plant-based enthusiast and the plant-based novice."

Unlike many plant-based snacks, Good Eat’n doesn’t get fancy with the flavors. The lineup includes Dill Ranch and Nacho Cheeze tortilla chips, Hot Hot puffs, Carolina BBQ popcorn, and porkless BBQ rinds. They also serve up Cinnamon Sugar mini donut puffs and Cookies N Creme popcorn for the sweet-toothed. 

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Utendahl recognizes that the brand heavily caters to a mindful Gen Z audience, so while its plant cred is a core attribute of the snack line, it still has to have shelf appeal for the demographic. And that meant the brand couldn't take itself too seriously, even with this being a plant-based product. The packaging is anchored by a playful and slightly subversive smiley face, tongue out with one of the seven flavors on top for each bag. What's more, the imagery is evocative of other types of recreational treats, like the kind you might find at Coachella.

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“The brand was designed to have a super playful and irreverent attitude. But it also needed to be something that is easily read and has an impact whether you're viewing it on-screen or on-shelf,” said Tori Baisden, creative director for UC. “Having this character of the smiley face that's uniform across every package has immediate accessibility and interest. People can relate to that smiley face—it’s immediately iconic.”

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For the studio, it was a way to imagine an entirely authentic brand that was true to itself. “Part of Good Eat’n’s design is to subvert the expectations of what a traditional plant-based brand looks like,” said Zoe Schoeller-Burke, design director at UC. “You don't normally see these very bright and bold colors, the fun typography, or playful illustrations. We flipped the script on what that traditional plant-based brand looks like.”

To do this, the team tapped into the media of their youth to inject a playful and fresh attitude into Good Eat’n’s brand. “We're kids of the 90s and early aughts, so we were thinking of the irreverent nature of commercials during that time and infomercials and just the silly absurdity of it all,” Baisden said. “Gushers commercials where the heads would turn into the different fruits and the comedy of the time, the absurd style of humor in sketch shows like All That—which also had a smiley face logo—and Good Burger were big reference points. We built that irreverence into the fabric of the brand.”

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One obvious sign of that irreverence attitude is the smiley face with the tongue out. Placing the flavors on the top or tip of the tongue feels like a nod to 90s rave culture, and all the accouterments that came with those dance parties, including colorful pills and psychedelic-laden tabs of paper makes for a fun and cute wink to a subculture that predates much of the Gen Z crowd.

The junk-food-meets-cute-with-fast-food aesthetic isn't a coincidence either. Bright reds and yellows lure the audience in, similar to many of those beloved, wilding-out brands of yesterday, giving the snack line major mass appeal. "We wanted to use that same tactic," Zoe continued, "but with the actual caveat that this is plant-based and a surprisingly better-for-you option.”

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Ultimately, Good Eat’n is a snacky sheep in wolf’s clothing. With bright, bombastic design elements inspired by tasty treats of the past, the playfulness and edginess of the branding will surely attract consumers that want a familiar snack with throwback appeal. Not only does the straightforward look have an endearing digital shelf presence, but it will likely make you think twice when you see it next to a bag of Lays or Smartfood.

Good Eat’n is available only on the Gopuff app or website.

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