Fresh Tilled Soil Case Study: grown
Cultivating a new brand through experience design
Grown is reinventing fast food by offering fresh, healthy, 100% organic options with the convenience of a fast-food chain.
Created by Shannon Allen, singer, actress and wife of former National Basketball Association (NBA) star Ray Allen, grown was “born” out of a harrowing experience trying to find healthy alternatives in an emergency. While out shopping with her three kids (and pregnant with her fourth), Shannon’s youngest son, who has Type-1 diabetes, began suffering a blood-sugar crisis. Speeding down Route 9 outside of Boston, the only options available were traditional fast food chains when what she really wanted for her son was a much healthier option. It was at that moment that Allen saw a need for healthy, organic meals at that same convenience.
Grown seeks to inspire people to get excited about what they eat and empower them to make better choices, and their website would need to support this goal. The team at grown wanted to be sure that their website reflected the vibe of their flagship restaurant that was under construction, preparing for their grand opening. Further, the team felt strongly that linking the online and in-restaurant experience was a key part of their value prop and differentiation. The whole end-to-end experience should match and delight.
Fresh Tilled Soil worked closely with grown to imagine and design a responsive website that was functional, informative, simple to use and offered an exceptional experience to their customers. Afterward, we delivered an in-restaurant experience map to aid in designing the optimal in-restaurant experience for patrons.
Design Process
The priorities for the first week of the project were:
- Establish a sitemap, information architecture and navigation system
- Outline key areas and content requirements for each page/page template
- Review technology, CMS, and general development requirements
- Explore visual design themes based on existing branding/packaging work
The website needed to be a reflection of the grown brand, tell a compelling story, and make visitors feel like they were actually in the restaurant. Each page would need to embody the grown experience with a balance of high-impact photography and content aligned with the brand. The grown team was able to provide a lot of visual design inspiration and content for the website.
“I know that visuals work wonders for inspiring people to eat better. It’s really that simple. This website is going to do just that.” — grown nutrition consultant
Wireframes and Early Design Concepts
Our team established an initial structure and visual direction for the website based on specific requirements the grown team shared with us. We delivered wireframes to show the website structure, content hierarchy and IA.
Initial design concepts showcased the general visual direction.
We worked with the grown’s brand firm to recommend a logo from concepts consistent with their brand guidelines.
The Final Design
Here’s a preview of the final home page design for large and small screen devices.
On-Site Experience Map
After focusing on the website design, our team quickly turned their attention to designing the in-restaurant ordering experience — a key part of the grown value prop and differentiation. We spent time on location in Miami to research and design the flow and physical experience of the restaurant.
Our team constructed an ordering experience map to identify the front of house and back of house activities related to the customers’ journey and provided insights into areas of improvement.
The Client Experience
Fresh Tilled Soil really enjoyed working with Shannon and the team at grown. Their passion and enthusiasm for the project and their mission was contagious, and we really believe in their mission of bringing local, healthy fast food alternatives to the masses.
“Seeing grown on the web is a thrill. Like many of us, I’ve known Shannon’s ideas and dreams for the project for a couple of years, but this makes it so real, and makes so clear the combination of healthy food, and the hands-on experience families can have in learning about where good food comes from.” — grown restaurant architect
“Tim, you Michael and the Team completely nailed it today. Awesome work- please keep moving in this direction of setting the “grown tone”, exceeding expectations and delivering something that exemplifies our mission, meets our level of passion & dedication, worthy of being lauded and happens to be magical. Great job!” — Shannon Allen, Owner and Creator, grown
