We didn't build Purée from the ground up; we acquired a business with years of history, loyal customers, established systems, and its own soul. In many ways, that made rebranding even more challenging than starting from scratch. Before we could dream about where we wanted to go, we first had to understand what already existed; what deserved protecting, what needed reimagining, and what we wanted the next chapter of Purée to stand for.

The workshops with Maxwell and the EightySeven team at the very beginning of our relationship felt less like a branding exercise and more like therapy for our business. They asked the kinds of questions that don't have immediate answers, but ultimately shape everything that follows. They challenged us to define not just what we sell, but who we are, why we exist, how we lead, how we make decisions, and how we want people to feel every time they interact with Purée.

One of the biggest lessons I took away is something I've since found echoed in some of my favorite leadership books: people rarely remember every detail of what you do - they remember how you made them feel. That realization fundamentally changed how we think about building Purée. Our brand isn't our logo, our colors, or even our stores. It's the feeling our team creates for one another behind the scenes, and the feeling our customers carry with them long after they've left. Great brands, like great hospitality, are built intentionally from the inside out.

EightySeven didn't just create a beautiful brand identity. They helped us articulate the soul of our business. They gave us a language for our values, a framework for our decisions, and a foundation that will continue to guide us as Purée grows. Looking back, the visual identity was only the output. The real work, and the real value, was discovering who we wanted to become before deciding how we wanted to look.