From accidental sketch to shelf standout: Studio Bergini’s honest approach to UNTO’s identity

When London-based Studio Bergini set out to create an identity for UNTO, a small Italian organic olive oil producer, they faced the challenge of making a tiny Tuscan brand stand out in an oversaturated market. The solution came through what Co-director Kristian Hjorth Berge describes as “a kit of bold, impactful parts” – a system designed to work equally well on Instagram feeds as on deli shelves. The brand’s most distinctive element emerged almost by accident. “We actually worked with an illustrator on drawing various things and animals with connections to the Tuscan countryside, but ended up accidentally creating the olive-eyes from a rough placeholder sketch we made ourselves, and it just made so much sense,” Berge explains. “To launch a new product and brand and really just have it stare at people from the shelves with that innocent look, it really makes you want to pick it up.” The typographic approach reinforces the brand’s artisanal positioning through deliberate imperfection. Monotype Grotesque was selected to evoke “a vintage-rustic feel, something like a badly set letterpress print by a local printer’s in the 50’s,” Berge notes. “The typeface has a lot of those quirks from early sans serifs and was used a lot historically in Europe before the neo-grotesques came around.” By mixing different widths of the typeface, the studio achieved an unevenness that makes the design feel handmade.