Since 2017, La Sovrana has been bringing the freshest of Italian produce to London. The family-run wholesaler, led by brothers Alfonso and Pierpaolo Picaro, sources fruit and vegetables from their own farm in Campania, near the Amalfi Coast, and from a network of trusted growers across Italy.
La Sovrana’s London operation truly found its stride during the pandemic, as restaurant closures pushed demand for quality ingredients into neighbourhood shops, and many people rediscovered a passion for good food.
With business flourishing – and an outpost at New Covent Garden Market cementing their presence – the team realised their visual identity could no longer carry this growth, and approached London-based Justified Studio for a rebrand.
Beyond giving La Sovrana the confidence to move into fresh spaces, the new brand had to convey something deeper – the intentionality that underpins their trade.
Justified Studio’s identity for La Sovrana
“Being from England, I’ve grown up knowing I can get a peach or a lemon at any time of year – you just go to the supermarket and it’s always there, even if it’s all pretty shit, to be honest,” says founder and creative director Joshua Ogden.
“What’s interesting about La Sovrana is how deliberate everything is – the produce is grown for flavour, in season, and you can taste that intention. You never fully know what kind of cucumber you might get, for example, because it depends on the temperature, how it’s grown, what’s happened that year, and that’s directly tied to the taste. It’s a completely different way of thinking about food than what I grew up with.”
This proved to be fertile conceptual ground for Justified Studio to dig into. In a time when food is often engineered for convenience and efficiency, La Sovrana stands for the opposite – produce meant to be savoured, grown with patience, purpose, and generations of knowledge.
Justified Studio’s identity for La Sovrana
“The freshness of our produce doesn’t just come from how quickly it reaches the market; it comes from knowing when to pick it,” says Alfonso Picaro. “That’s knowledge my family has passed down. My brother can walk through a farm and know which tomatoes are at their peak, which ones have the right colour, the right ripeness – the perfect moment to harvest.”
Justified Studio wanted the rebrand to capture La Sovrana’s deep-rooted know-how, but without creating something stiff or weighed down by tradition. “We didn’t want to make it feel like a heritage brand,” says Ogden. “We wanted something forward-looking, with subtle nods to nostalgia.”
The team also wanted the identity to feel grounded – a reflection of where La Sovrana’s produce and its knowledge come from. When Picaro invited them to the warehouse, they were instantly drawn to the typography on packaging boxes and sticker labels on fruits – the everyday graphics of southern Italy.
Pulling on these typographic strands, they crafted a custom wordmark, a thick, curvy serif with a hand-rendered warmth.
The wordmark
The letterforms, deliberately close-knit – almost fused – evoke “the bleeding ink when a label is printed on cardboard,” as Ogden notes. Flourishes on the ‘S’ and ‘V’ give the mark presence, allowing it to command attention across market shutters and van liveries.
“We wanted the wordmark to carry the same sense of trust as a good fruit sticker,” says Ogden. “Those labels have always been a quiet mark of quality, a sign that what’s inside has been chosen with care. The logo needed to feel the same way.”
The bespoke mark was paired with Archivo as the primary typeface – chosen for its simple, yet impactful and strong weight – while IBM Plex Serif was handpicked for tagging systems and body copy to ensure clear distinction and hierarchy.
Colour became another vehicle for storytelling. The team combined the vivid hues found in La Sovrana’s produce, and the softer, sun-bleached tones of the Amalfi region, referencing vintage travel posters and the faded palettes of seaside hotels. Together, they evoke a certain Italian-ness, and this was crucial.
Justified Studio’s identity for La Sovrana
“Alfonso’s the only Italian in a very British market,” says Ogden. “So whenever you see La Sovrana, it needed to feel proudly Italian – bright, expressive, and full of that freshness and beauty you get from his produce.”
The Amalfi lemon seen in the logo – La Sovrana’s “most distinctive product,” as Picaro puts it – became another stamp of belonging. The photography extends that feeling of familiarity; shot on film, it lends the identity a nostalgic softness, while also providing a flexible system for growth – a tool that can adapt as the brand scales.
“We put a strong emphasis on imagery because it will always be central to what La Sovrana does,” says Ogden. “Rather than building a system full of graphic elements and shapes, we focused on a powerful logo mark and beautiful imagery, something that could act as an editorial vessel that can take the brand wherever it wants to go next.”
Justified Studio’s identity for La Sovrana
Justified Studio’s identity for La Sovrana
Justified Studio’s identity for La Sovrana
Justified Studio’s identity for La Sovrana