Long Paddock is an artisan fromagerie and cheese school in Castlemaine. Established by self-professed “cheese tragics” Ivan and Julie Larcher, Alison Lansley, Ann-Marie Monda, and Carla Meurs, they ensure their cheese-making process honours a tradition that yields high-quality products with care, craft & skill. They consider the conscious consumer in their work and embrace the concept of educating through shared experiences and run a cheese school dedicated to such practices.
For Long Paddock’s branding, we wanted to visually represent their close relationship with the land and the intricate interplay of fresh produce and traditional processes that go into creating great artisan cheese.
Long Paddock’s story was the marrying of two different worlds — traditional French methods of cheese making and contemporary Australian flavours. It was our job to change the dated perception of artisan cheese being only an international luxury. We needed to show Australians that exceptional cheese can be made right here, in our ‘own backyard’.
With Long Paddock’s close relationship with nature in mind, we examined their cheese-making process up-close — literally! For their branding and packaging, we considered elements found in nature that are vital in producing Long Paddock’s cheese and honed in on them at a micro-level. From the grasses that a dairy cow would graze on to the natural microscopic cultures critical in the process of making high-quality cheeses.
We illustrated these micro-elements onto the packaging in a stylised manner, evoking a sense of the natural world without explicitly evincing nature. When adding the Long Paddock logo to the packaging, we employed a bold yet approachable typestyle. We wanted something that was noticeable but that wouldn’t overshadow the intricate designs on the packaging.
We were heavily inspired by the iconic Australian landscape, drawing on ‘colour fields’ and photography, and focusing on Australia’s unique flora which offered us inspiring colours, textures and even flavours.
For their website, we used imagery taken by a local Castlemaine photographer, of the area, to help set the scene for digital visitors. The Long Paddock logo is integrated into beautiful images of sweeping Australian landscapes and cows grazing in fields to demonstrate the close relationship Long Paddock has with their environment.
Our overall design helped to create a unique, sophisticated, and flexible visual language for the Long Paddock cheese brand and allowed scope for a full gamut of product packaging and branding. We also forged a contemporary and Australian voice for a traditional and international product — going against the grain of branding style that has been upheld for a long time and we think the results are refreshing!
