Brand Identity For Ellis Butchers
One butcher brand, two totally different identities.
Studio Blackburn developed a cohesive brand identity for Ellis Butchers, a sustainable whole-carcass butcher with two distinct locations in Blackheath. The project balanced heritage and modernity—one shop celebrating tradition with classic design cues, the other embracing a youthful, vibrant aesthetic. A cast of illustrated meat characters brought warmth and humor to the brand, uniting both under a premium, community-focused identity.
Set in Saans
Insights- The core challenge was Nick Ellis's two Blackheath shops serving very different audiences: Blackheath Village had an affluent, heritage-heavy setting, while Blackheath Standard skewed younger and less wealthy, so a single flattened identity would have failed both.
- Studio Blackburn solved it with one parent brand and two expressions: Village used a classic logotype, sophisticated green palette, green tiles and awnings; Standard used chunky typography, orange accents, and a more contemporary, social-first look.
- The unifying idea was the cast of illustrated meat characters led by "Meat Ellis," described by Studio Blackburn as "the heart of the brand"; they appeared as walking meat chops on product tags and receipts and were animated for social channels to add warmth and humour.
- The brand system extended beyond visual identity into strategy, architecture, verbal identity, environmental design, signage, and packaging, with the tagline “Nice to Meat You” helping tie the ecosystem together across both locations.
- Creative Boom framed the work as "one brand, two very different crowds," highlighting how the design balanced sustainability and whole-carcass butchery with a premium, community-focused proposition; Creative Review also covered the launch.
