How Plakton distilled a high-altitude apple orchard into a brand

Barcelona-based studio Plakton grew Boscada’s identity from a family memory: “Bellaguarda is where our grandfather used to go,” a high place with remote farms surrounded by forest. Baró i Fills is a family-owned company that has spent more than 50 years growing stone and pome fruits, and Boscada is the first apple it has produced and marketed under a brand of its own – Golden, Fuji and Granny Smith varieties grown at around 1,000 metres above sea level, where the altitude gives the fruit special characteristics. The name evokes being surrounded by the forest – emboscada in Catalan – while also suggesting an apple that is much sought-after, a desired one. “We chose to build the identity around the first meaning: the forest and the landscape where these apples grow,” explains brand strategist Gerard Condal. “We like identities that reveal themselves over time – the name has a second layer of meaning for those who discover the story, rather than explaining everything at first glance.” That territory is distilled into the symbol, which was drawn from the orchards at 1,000 metres and the forests and irregular terrain around them. Rather than picturing a mountain or a forest outright, the mark folds the apple, the rolling fields and the surrounding woodland into one graphic element, presented with a level of abstraction that lets it work as a small-scale identifier. “It needed to evoke the territory without becoming descriptive,” details Art Director Roser Padrés, “allowing it to work as a timeless logo that could be reproduced at very small sizes.”