The Impossible rebrand introduces a comprehensive new design system across the entire brand experience. This includes crafted design elements such as typography, illustration, photography, motion principles and overall art direction.

We are living in a time where the impact of climate change is more devastating than ever, and doing something about it couldn’t be more critical—extreme weather and climate-related events caused 11,778 reported disasters between 1970 and 2021, over 2 million deaths, and US$4.3 trillion in economic losses, according to new data from the World Meteorological Organization (WMO).

On top of this, it is becoming increasingly common knowledge that the animal agriculture industry is one of, if not the leading culprit in exacerbating climate change—animal agriculture produces 65% of the world's nitrous oxide emissions, which has a global warming impact 296 times greater than carbon dioxide. And yet the world is eating more meat than ever. The average American eats 225 lbs of animal meat per year, 40% more than the ASDA advises (it was 20% more in 1970). But asking people to change their behavior for the sake of the planet is incredibly difficult—we live in a polarized world where disinformation is rife, stories of climate disaster are often scary or seem abstract. Meanwhile, meat (and the culture that surrounds it) is thrilling, immediate, and tangible. From the hottest new NY restaurant, to traditional steakhouses in Texas and Thanksgiving, meat is part of what makes America, America, and asking people to stop eating it can feel like a huge part of culture is being taken away.

Impossible Foods was founded in 2011 with a simple but audacious ambition: displace animal agriculture by convincing meat lovers to eat less meat; in the process, save the world. To achieve this, two things needed to be true: they needed a product that looked, smelled, and tasted like animal meat, and they needed to target meat eaters as well as vegetarians.

This was also a far bigger business opportunity—the US plant-based meat market is worth $2.5 billion, but the US animal meat market $132 billion ($1.4 trillion worldwide). Impossible knew what it needed to do— yet its brand was inconsistent and generic. Specifically, its brand typeface, Druk Medium, is the most widely used typeface by brands today. The brand needed to show up in a way that was cohesive, distinctive, and invited meat lovers in on their terms— and it needed an ownable typeface to help it do just that.

To deliver on the needs of the brief, we created a new, bespoke typeface, SANS MEAT.

It is an ode to classic hand-painted meat market and butcher signage, re-imagined for today’s audience and media use. With flared strokes, long sweeping curves and a playful bounce, it is formatted in three different weights so that it always feels enticing and exciting, just like our meat. Ultimately, our typography was created to grab attention—in headlines, on posters, in social posts, and on our packaging’s claims that serve as tasty callouts to meat lovers everywhere. We strived to capture the best of two distinct worlds: the handcrafted feel of fresh, quality meat, and the spectacular, meat-acular miracle that is Impossible.