Ukrop’s Homestyle Foods

Industry: Food Services

Project type: Web Design, Visual Design

Role: Visual Designer

Project duration: 8 Months

About the Client

Ukrop's is a local food producer and former grocery store chain. Thousands of families in Virginia have known Ukrop's for their exceptional quality foods and their friendly, supportive staff. No longer a grocery store chain, they have pivoted into making and supplying their signature recipes across the country, but especially in Richmond, Virginia. Ukrop’s Homestyle Foods includes a number of brands in their brand family, each with their own identity.

More About Ukrop's Homestyle Foods

If you're from the Richmond area, you already know about Ukrop's. But for those of you who don't know, Ukrop’s was a staple grocery store in our community. Kids I grew up with would pride themselves by bragging about how their mom "got a Ukrop's cake" with it's notoriously delicious buttercream icing that no one can beat (even to this day!). Ukrop's still makes delicious baked goods and other food offerings, so to revitalize their digital presence, they requested a new site design for their parent brand, Ukrop's Homestyle Foods and their family of brands, Ukrop's, Catering by Ukrop's, White House Rolls, and Mrs. Marshall's.

The Ask

The CX team at CapTech was asked to help Ukrop’s and it’s family of brands match the new look and feel of the brand redesign they had undergone from a branding agency. They also requested that we help make their sites mobile-friendly and that the website be easily editable for their marketing team to customize.

Working with Ukrop's was awesome. I mean, how often do you get to help one of your childhood favorite brands refresh their image? They were friendly, eager to learn about content management, and wanted to be a part of the process as much as we needed them to be.

The Method

On my team was a creative director, UX analyst/designer, front-end developer, project manager, and myself, a visual designer. We worked together with the marketing folks at Ukrop's to come up with a style that matched their current packaging and illustration work done by another firm. We went with a light and comfort-feeling style to create a friendly, but still familiar, family of sites.

The previous site was lacking, to say the least. It was not mobile friendly at all, had little-to-no calls to action, didn't match their rebrand, and was lacking the hierarchy they needed to show the relationship of their brands. There was also no way to view all of the products Ukrop's had to offer! We solved that by organizing all the products through card-sorting and creating product pages for each applicable brand. Above all else, no one was able to update or maintain the website, so we went with a WordPress CMS site for longevity and flexibility for future maintenance.

The Result

Left to Right: White House Rolls, Mrs. Marshall's, Ukrop's Catering

We were able to deliver a family of websites all connected to each other through a global header and with their own visual styles to make each brand identifiable at a glance. We utilized the illustrations and packaging designs to create a familiar feeling no matter what brand the user visits. I believe we did Ukrop's justice by making sure the look and feel of their sites were still friendly, fun, and food-focused − values that Ukrop's continues to serve the community near and far.