press
men’s health says our client makes one of the best energy bars
Men’s Health recently reviewed the Six Best Energy Bars on the market, and to our delight, among them was our client Skout Natural Foods. Recognizing the evolution of energy bars from processed candy to clean, nutritious food, Skout’s Blueberry+Almond Trailbar took home the Winning Choice for Best Pre-Workout Bar.
Congratulations Skout for the national attention, we knew you were beautiful inside and out!
Eating a bar with roughly 35 to 45 grams of carbs an hour before a cardio or strength workout can help boost energy. But check labels closely, says sports nutritionist Dr. Suzanne Nelson, and drop those with more than 4 grams of fat, 10 grams of protein, or 5 grams of fiber, all of which can slow digestion.
Winner: Skout Blueberry + Almond Trailbar has 32 grams of carbs and tastes like a Fig Newton. It’s high in the sugar you need, but gets it only from real fruit.
Foerstel designed the packaging for not only the champion bar, but for their entire line of Trailbars. Taking cues from Skout’s previous packaging, we retained the established color palette as a flavor designation system, while refreshing the logo and introducing new graphic elements to tell more of the brand story, strengthen the on-shelf presence and provide more appetite appeal.
Previous Package Design
After Our Redesign
client’s product is a hit! package design by foerstel
Phil Lempert, the national food trend expert known as The Supermarket Guru, recently declared the new Melt Organic product “A HIT!”
Honey Melt Organic combines their signature blend of Melt with organic wildflower honey and cinnamon for a naturally sweet taste. Honey Melt is perfect for everyone who loves the sweet combination of honey and butter but wants a healthier alternative.
We couldn’t be prouder. The team at Foerstel developed the branding and package design for this Boise-based client.
“If you’re looking to replace butter this is actually a good choice. Made from a blend of different organic plant oils and honey, this would even be good on toast by itself. The honey actually masks the oil taste. Dairy free with 425 mg of omega 3s. One tablespoon is 80 calories, 9 grams of fat and 2 grams of sugars.“
our client made the editor’s pick at expo west
Food allergies continue to be a huge market driver for natural foods innovation. Standing out among many new products in this category, these nine companies at Expo West 2013 have created delicious “free-from” products that meet shoppers’ needs to avoid common food allergens such as gluten, dairy, soy, nuts and eggs while delivering the taste and texture that consumers crave. Our client, Cybele’s Free-to-Eat, was featured among the nine standout products at the show (and showcased our engaging and informative package design).
[source: newhope360]
foerstel’s package design selected for eye-catching excellence
Our Beanfields Bean & Rice Chips package design was recently included in a select group that was recognized by newhope360 for being an eye-catching design at Expo West 2013.
“How do you stand out on shelf? These 30 companies at Natural Products Expo West 2013 have figured out a way through color and attention-grabbing typography.”
This striking package design was created by our Creative Director Claudia Button.
whole foods loves our new package design for beanfield’s
Just in time for the Superbowl!
The Whole Foods market in Pasadena, California was so taken with our new package design for Beanfield’s snack chips they created a big beautiful end-aisle display showcasing all of the flavors!
janie hoffman, founder and CEO of mamma chia, named “person of the year”
Here at Foerstel, we’d like to extend a massive congrats to Mamma Chia’s very own founder and CEO, Janie Hoffman. Hoffman was awarded “Person of the Year” at the annual BevNET Best of 2012 ceremony. We’re honored your company has chosen to do business with us. Congratulations, Janie!
Janie Hoffman, founder and CEO of Mamma Chia, a conscious and sustainable company that offers delicious, high quality, organic chia-based beverages, has been named “Person of the Year” at the 10th annual BevNET Best of 2012 awards. Hoffman is recognized for her impact on the beverage industry, including the creation of an entirely new category - the first chia-based beverage - as well as a leader in category sales and growth.
“Receiving this recognition from BevNET is both extremely rewarding and humbling-it really puts into perspective what the Mamma Chia team has accomplished in a relatively short period of time and acknowledges our innovation as the creator of the chia beverage category,” said Hoffman. “In a little more than two years, I’ve watched Mamma Chia grow from a delicious beverage I developed in my kitchen to now being a brand leader in the functional juice category. Best of all, we’re making a difference in people’s lives by providing a convenient way for them to increase their natural vitality with the powerhouse ingredient of chia.”
Since launching nationally in fall 2011 as the first-to-market chia seed beverage, Mamma Chia has experienced quadruple-digit growth and continues to expand rapidly. The company unveiled three new vitality beverages earlier this year-Grapefruit Ginger, Guava Mamma and Kiwi Lime-bringing the Mamma Chia product portfolio to nine varieties that are gluten-free, vegan, non-GMO, kosher and certified organic by the USDA. The brand was also honored with the BevNET “Best Non‐Carbonated Beverage Award” in 2011.
With a superior taste and a powerful synergy of nutrients, each 10 oz. bottle of Mamma Chia features more than a day’s worth of omega-3s (2500 mg), 25 percent of daily fiber, 4 g of complete protein and 95 mg of calcium, plus powerful antioxidants and valuable minerals. Mamma Chia is available nationwide at natural food stores such as Whole Foods Market, as well as mainstream grocery stores like Ralphs, The Fresh Market and Wegmans for a suggested retail price of $3.49 per bottle.
BevNET is recognized as the preeminent resource for beverage industry information. Its editorial mission to assist in increasing retail beverage sales led to the establishment of the “Best of” awards as a reference map for the developing beverage landscape.
[via: New Hope 360°]
BevNET.com, the leading beverage-oriented media company in the U.S., is pleased to announce its Best of 2012 award winners. Selecting from a pool of nearly 300 new product introductions, brand revamps, and line extensions, an overarching theme of health and wellness dominated this year’s list of winners. From cold pressed, high-pressure processed juices, to emerging functional ingredients, to natural sources of energy, the 17 award winners represent brands that have become key drivers of innovation in the beverage industry, and ones that BevNET expects to remain at the forefront of new growth in an ever-evolving marketplace.
mamma chia featured in the new york times
Amongst the buzz of Thanksgiving turkeys and cranberry sauce, one of our favorite clients received a great writeup in The New York Times. Congrats Mamma Chia on the press, we love your product and we are so thankful to have you as a client.
30 Years After Chia Pets, Seeds Hit Food Aisles
By STEPHANIE STROM
Published: November 23, 2012
Janie Hoffman founded Mamma Chia, whose fruit juices with chia seeds are sold nationwide. Photo by: Sandy Huffaker
First there were Chia Pets; now there are chia people.Ubiquitous in television ads that began 30 years ago, Chia Pets were called “the pottery that grows.” Mixing chia seeds and water on the outside of an animal-shaped terra-cotta figurine produces a plant resembling green hair almost overnight.
Now, chia is having a second life as a nutritional “it” item. Whole and ground chia seeds are being added to fruit drinks, snack foods and cereals and sold on their own to be baked into cookies and sprinkled on yogurt. Grown primarily in Mexico and Bolivia, chia, like fish, is rich in omega-3 fatty acids, though of a different sort. It also has antioxidants, protein and fiber. Recognition of its nutritional value can be traced as far back as the Aztecs.
Companies like Dole and Nature’s Path have introduced chia products, which have begun showing up on shelves in mainstream grocery stores like Ralphs, Vons and Albertsons. Mintel, a market research firm, counted 100 products containing chia in a presentation it did in March on the potential of increasing the use of the seeds in dairy products.
“About two years ago, our retailers came to us and said, ‘We need you to be in this business everyone is talking about, the business of chia seeds,’ ” said Michael P. Hirsch, vice president of Joseph Enterprises, which sells Chia Pets and other novelty products and has now added chia seeds and milled chia called - what else? - Ch-Ch-Ch-Chia Omega.
Last spring, high demand collided with weather patterns that depressed production, raising prices and the awareness that chia had moved beyond the realm of health food stores into the broader market.
Fruit juices with suspended chia seeds at Janie Hoffman's home in Bonsall, Calif. Photo by: Sandy Huffaker
Janie Hoffman, founder of Mamma Chia fruit juices, was one of the first people to recognize chia’s potential as a food. She was complaining about flax seed - “I hate how you have to grind it and then it goes rancid” - to a friend, who asked why she wasn’t using chia instead. “She said it had no taste, it’s high in antioxidants, huge in omega-3, a far superior seed,” Ms. Hoffman said. “In short, she made me feel like an idiot - no one was using flax seed anymore.”
So she bought some chia seeds online and was quickly sold on their benefits. “I started incorporating it into everything I was eating,” she said. “Stir fries, yogurt, beverages - there really wasn’t anything in my kitchen that didn’t have chia in it.”
In 2009, Ms. Hoffman developed fruit juices with chia seeds suspended in them. (Exposure to liquid gives the seeds a sticky, gelatinous coating, which is how they bond to the terra-cotta pets.)
“My first sales call a year and a half later was to Whole Foods in the southern Pacific region,” she said. “I walked in to meet the buyer and presented this chia beverage and said I would like it to go into a few stores. She said, ‘No, I want you in all of them’ ” - about 40 stores - “and that was that.”
Within 11 months, Mamma Chia products were in Whole Foods stores across the nation, as well as in hundreds of bodegas and health and natural foods stores. They are now sold in Ralphs and Vons stores and will soon be in Albertsons.
“I personally think demand for it will grow for sure, though how big it will get is still a question,” said Brad C. Bartlett, president of Dole Food Company’s packaged foods business.
Dole chose chia as the first ingredient it would promote in its new Nutrition Plus line of products, which aim to provide a functional benefit to consumers. It won out over other candidates, Mr. Bartlett said, because of its long history as a source of nutrition - the Aztecs used it for many purposes - and because it does not require much processing to confer its benefits.
The company does independent clinical testing on each product in the Nutrition Plus line to back up claims it makes about their health benefits, and it was surprised by one finding: significantly more alpha-linolenic acid in omega-3 reached the bloodstream and was converted into eicosapentaenoic acid, a long-chain fatty acid considered good for the heart, when the seeds were milled rather than whole.
“That came as quite a surprise, and we stopped the rollout and reformulated our clusters to use milled chia instead of whole seeds,” Mr. Bartlett said, referring to Dole’s Chia & Fruit Clusters.
Nature’s Path, an organic cereal company, introduced its first chia-laced cereal, Apple Crumble Love Crunch, last December, and now has eight products that include the seed in some form. “Business has been great with these products - overwhelmingly positive and, perhaps surprisingly, not just in health food stores but also in regular grocery stores,” said Arjan Stephens, executive vice president of sales and marketing at Nature’s Path.
Mr. Stephens said chia’s nutritional attributes, along with its many uses in food processing, could turn it into a staple. “It can be used in gluten-free breads or waffles to add fluffiness or to replace eggs in vegan products,” he said. “It offers an alternative to those with nut allergies.”
Mr. Hirsch, the Joseph Enterprises vice president, was less certain that chia would be a blockbuster, even though his company is adding protein bars to its line of edible chia products, which are sold in Walgreens, CVS and other drugstores. He said he was concerned about the supply of chia seeds, which are harvested once a year and grown in rotation, usually with corn.
Australia has recently joined Mexico and Bolivia in the chia-production act with its own type of seed that is grown somewhat differently, Mr. Hirsch said. But it is a difficult crop to grow outside of the traditional areas, and the market is tiny, about $70 million.
“Everybody is looking at this because everybody is always looking for something new,” Mr. Hirsch said. “I also know from the sales at this point it’s a niche market still, and we don’t know how big the niche is yet.”
If that niche fails to expand, there will always be another Chia Pet. This year, Chia Hello Kitty is joining the lineup.
—
[via: The New York Times ]
A version of this article appeared in print on November 24, 2012, on page B1 of the New York edition with the headline: 30 Years After Chia Pets, Seeds Hit Food Aisles.
blanketing boise
via Greenbelt Magazine, by Elisabeth Sharp McKetta
Hundreds of local homeless Boise residents receive warmth from the idea of one thoughtful woman and her rallying company and community.
Anyone who has ever had or been a child understands the significance of blankets. My toddler daughter says a longer, more tender goodbye to her blanket than she says to her father or to me.
Three years ago, Laura Herrick, an account director with Foerstel Design, worked with her company to create the Boise Blanket Drive after recognizing the transformative power of blankets to help the homeless.
Foerstel Design is located near 16th and Main Street, near the hub of Boise’s homeless care facilities. One autumn night in 2009, Herrick and a colleague were working late. When they left the office they were struck both by the sight of so many homeless people overflowing from the shelters and also by the thought that for most of the year in Boise, these people are out in the cold. Herrick knew that Boise has a generous number of food and coat drives, and it occurred to her that these people could probably use blankets.
“A good blanket can keep a family warm all night,” Herrick says. Both she and her colleague had unused blankets at home, and so they brought some back the next day.
The response was overwhelming. The homeless shelter invited Herrick to their annual memorial service, always held the day before Thanksgiving.
“It was such a touching ceremony,” Herrick says. “It is an outdoor vigil with candles and a bonfire. The shelter provides a big dinner for the homeless that night. The ceremony honors the homeless who have died during the year, telling personal stories about the value of those people’s lives.”
The ceremony includes an assortment of religious rituals, in hope of speaking to as many people of different faiths as possible. A local bagpipe player volunteers the music. And this year, for the third year in a row, the ceremony will include the gift of blankets.
Now every year Foerstel Design creates posters for the Blanket Drive, places them around town, and offers their office as a receiving place for donated blankets. The Blanket Drive has had a generous turnout of givers in its first two years, which goes to demonstrate one of the many wonderful things about Boise: if you give people here an avenue for helping others, they will use it. And many people have extra, unused blankets in their houses.
To participate, bring a clean blanket in good condition to Foerstel Design (located at 249 S 16th St, Boise, ID 83702) during the two weeks before Thanksgiving. Blankets do not have to be new.
Baby blankets are welcome, too. Roughly one-sixth of the homeless population is made up of children, from babies to pre-teens. One year someone brought a stack of Disney blankets, and the homeless children were over-the-moon excited.
There are a thousand worthy ways to donate to the community: you can give time, give blood, give money, give toys, give clothes. In giving blankets, the people at Foerstel Design have found a way to give that helps the homeless keep warm in more ways than one.
“A coat is functional,” Herrick says, “but a blanket is personal.”
spotted in socal
The LA Times recently spotted the Idaho Potato Commission’s 6-ton Potato Truck and apparently already had an 18′ fork that was just big enough to dive right in!
“Pasadena’s 18-foot fork finally has food to match its massive scale.
Drivers heading toward the median that splits Saint John and Pasadena avenues have likely gotten used to the giant wooden utensil stuck in the road. But Tuesday afternoon, they were also greeted by a six-ton Idaho potato.
The Idaho Potato Commission is celebrating its 75th year by taking what they’ve dubbed the world’s largest spud on a 36-state road trip, said Kaiti Frickey, part of the “Tater Team” that has been carting the potato around for more than six months.
“We’ve had a crowd all day since we got here at 11 a.m.,” Frickey said. “We’re basically potato baby sitters.”
The potato commission kicked off the road trip with a $100,000 donation to Meals on Wheels and are accepting donations for the charity at each stop, Frickey said. Using a bright red truck and trailer, the Tater Team has had no trouble zipping down freeways with their giant spud chained down.
Philip Coombes, who is an original member of Pasadena’s “Fork in the Road Gang,” helped coordinate the potato’s stop in Pasadena as a fun way to help raise awareness of his own “Put a Fork in Hunger” food drive Nov. 10 and 11. Last year, he said the drive raised more than five tons of food that fed people in Pasadena’s Central Park on Thanksgiving Day.
“The potato weighs six tons, and we’ve got to bring in least that much this year,” Coombes said.
Frickey said the spud will remain near the fork on the 200 block of Bellefontaine Street until 6 p.m. Tuesday and is headed for the Farmers Market at 3rd Street and Fairfax Avenue this weekend.
But hungry onlookers beware: The giant potato is made of a steel frame, plywood, sculpting foam and concrete. Frickey said a real tater of this size would have taken more than 10,000 years to grow.”
Source: LA Times
design annual 53
We received our copy of Communication Arts‘ Design Annual 53, September/October this morning and were finally able to see our entry featured within this prestigious publication. Congratulations again to our very own Jeff Harder who completed this wine package design for DC Flynt MW Selections!
