Ast helps Caterite cook up a fresh new image
Foodservice provider Caterite has refreshed its image with an investment in new graphics for its van fleet, supplied by Ast Signs.
For more than 40 years, Caterite has been successfully providing hotels, restaurants, bars, guest houses and other catering establishments across Cumbria with fresh, grocery and non-food products from around the globe.
From its humble beginnings as a one-man mobile grocery shop, to the £25 million pound business it is today, the company now runs a fleet of over 50 multi-temperature delivery vehicles and an advanced e-commerce website.
After several years with the same vehicle livery, it was decided that a change in design was in order to help its vehicles stand out, and to reflect the creative nature of the company.
“We wanted to come away from the corporate look and make our vehicles more exciting,” said Hannah Moran, creative lead at Caterite.
“We needed a livery that could separate us from the competition and show how forward thinking we are. What we didn’t want to do was make our vehicles look completely unrecognisable, so we took our brief to Ast Signs – another top Cumbrian company like ourselves, and a leader in field of transport branding and vehicle wrapping.”
Ast Signs created three design concepts for Caterite, which Hannah then progressed and developed. Incorporating detailed watercolour illustrations of ingredients, dishes and popular products, the new designs include paint swooshes akin to the firm’s updated logo, and messaging highlighting its different servi
ces.
“It was a really fun process,” said Hannah. “We created mood boards of different types of images, fonts and quotes that we liked. In the end we felt a watercolour style design was a softer, more contemporary alternative to using photographs which tend to date quickly.”
As the concept progressed, Hannah experimented with the use of colour and imagery to give each vehicle its own identity. Working closely with Ast Signs’ senior graphic designer Yvette Earl, Hannah and the team moved away from using Caterite’s original green branding to incorporate more of the colours used in the illustrations instead.
“I was really pleased when Caterite came to us with such a creative brief,” said Yvette. “I feel like together we’ve created something fun, quirky and completely unique.”
Since the new vehicles have been out and about, Hannah and the creative team at Caterite have begun adding stylistic elements from the new livery to other areas of the business like marketing, advertising and signage.
“We are all really happy and proud of the new designs and how Ast Signs have helped us to make our vision a reality,” said Hannah.
“I think we have produced some truly stunning vehicle livery and we are looking forward to being able apply the new designs to our entire fleet.”
As well as advising Caterite with the design work, Ast Signs was also tasked with fitting the new livery at its purpose built factory in Penrith.
Printed using the latest environmentally friendly printers, the full colour printed 3M vinyl wraps were then applied to five Caterite vehicles, with one more to be added to the fleet later this year.
“Our transport manager, Matthew Scott, recently told me that a customer had seen one of the new vehicles on the road and that it had literally turned heads,” added Hannah. “This is exactly what we were going for – a head-turning, show-stopping livery that gets our customers talking. Job done.”
