Chef Shane Kelly web portal

Client: Shane Kelly

There can be no doubt that the world is in the middle of a food revolution. When Martha Stewart started her empire, she stood alone at the top of a one-person category. Now, she has company! Go to any bookstore and stand agog at the incredible array of experts, each ready to promote their own brand of cooking, dieting and presentation. So when Shane Kelly approached us about establishing her own unique brand identity, we knew it was a massive challenge that had to be done "just right."

We took that challenge head on.

Logo design

Shane is a personality, and she needed a consistent mark that she could use on all of her corporate communications. This logo had to be clean and simple, but also very stylish.

Typography was one challenge; Shane's color pallette was another. While Shane is a chef, she is really preaching the gospel of nutrition and healthy living. We couldn't allow people to see her branding and think "food." We instead needed to find a solution that didn't repel the food crowd, but embraced a bigger "educational" picture that would allow her to be a combination of "Paula Deen meets Rachael Ray."

We ended up on an autumn orange and milk chocolate brown, with a lime green accent to give us some design flexibility.

Web site

With a new logo that positioned her as upscale yet approachable, we dove straight into creating a web site that would give her a direct connection with her fans. Here's what we prioritized:

  1. Video: We made sure Shane's bubbly and very fun personality was represented in videos that not only let her demonstrate healthy cooking, but also her very powerful and compelling "food preacher" mission.
  2. Social interaction: Shane's blog had to be front and center, with simple tools that anyone could easily figure out. We also made Facebook a priority on every page of the site.
  3. Marketing: Shane invites membership to her site, and uses our on-board email marketing tools to communicate with them on a regular basis. Shane and her team can track clicks and opens, and point her fans to content throughout her site.