Landscape’s “clean and appetising” Sharebite revamp encapsulates the joy of food itself

Those familiar with the work of Jaedoo Lee might recognise the New York-based illustrator’s editorial work for the likes The New York Times and Bloomberg CityLab. It’s interesting to see this detailed style at work across a new branding project for Sharebite – a workplace food ordering platform. As an illustrator able to make nearly any object look tantalising, design studio Landscape turned to Jaedoo for illustrations for the brand’s refresh. “The dimensionality, attention to detail, charm, and depth in Jaedoo’s illustrations are so distinct — we fell in love and were thrilled to have him sign on,” Mackenzie Brookshire, creative director at Landscape reflects on the collaboration.

So how does this integration of Jaedoo’s style play out within the work? For a food benefits platform stressing the importance of food for happiness and productivity, highlighting the joyful, connecting quality of food was vital. Dialling up this aspect, Jaedoo developed an array of crisp illustrations depicting people, meals and dishes, or as Mackenzie puts it, “imaginary vignettes”.

Sharebite’s new brand symbol is also designed to reflect the joy of a shared meal. Comprising of a circle of plates, bowls and halves (once more, nodding to sharing), the symbol appears alongside Sharebite’s wordmark within the brand while also standing alone as an app icon. When shown in motion, it can morph into a smiley face icon – a further expression of the emotive element of the brand.

Mackenzie outlines that the merging of more editorial illustrations with symbolic moments came “naturally”, particularly “when thinking about the potential to convey the modern workforce and the unifying force of food as an integral part of its culture”. The creative director continues that Sharebite’s circular symbol itself represents many things, from “people dining together around a table” to “variety, circular economy,” and “teams”.

Besides new photography from Arturo Torres and Rob Williamson, Landscape has also evolved Sharebite’s colour palette to incorporate a broader selection. Among the reasons for the switch up, Mackenzie says that opting for an array of colours signalled an “appetising variety and abundance of meal choices.” The project itself can perhaps best be surmised by Landscape’s wide-ranging inspirations on the project. Mackenzie lists them as: “The joy of food itself, technology, cities, powerful quantities of data”, and, of course, “variety”.