Work / Gnarly Nutrition

A protein brand built to break out.

Selected work from the Gnarly brand project.

All-natural whey needed a brand that looked nothing like the muscle-bro shelf. We built it with no ad budget.

Start a Project

Gnarly Nutrition packaging and design work on the table in the Ballard Branding studio.

Gnarly trade-show booth with blue drink coolers and original branded displays.

Where they were

All-natural whey from grass-fed cows, and a shelf full of muscle-bro tubs.

The owner was already in the nutrition business. His idea: an all-natural whey protein from New Zealand grass-fed cows, with simple ingredients people could trust.

The product was good. What it needed was a brand that came off the shelf looking nothing like the rest, and people who would carry it with them. With no ad budget.

What we did

Three moves that built the brand.

01

A brand that broke away

The owner’s idea was all-natural whey from New Zealand grass-fed cows, so it could not look like another muscle-bro tub. The N pulls away from the G, like it’s breaking free, and the circle around the mark can’t contain the GN inside it. Life can’t be contained, and neither should your nutrition. Sleek. Simple ingredients. Simple label. And one line on every product, Full-On Nutrition. Not a rule for how to live. A reminder of how they already live, every day: holding nothing back. It becomes so much a part of you that it blends in and fades from view. Gnarly reminds you it has always been there.

Logo and mark: a GN no circle can contain
A vibrant blue and black no supplement brand was using
Label system and the Full-On Nutrition line
Grew one whey into a full product line

Gnarly products in the foreground of a strength and conditioning gym.

Climber drinking orange hydration from a clear Gnarly bottle, with a Gnarly Hydrate packet by her gear.

02

The gnarly in every individual

Gnarly wasn’t built to connect with the generic athlete. Let other brands do that. It was built to connect with the gnarly in every individual. We connected on the granular, and it connected. We chose grassroots people who were real: people who built their following by being real, by being gnarly. They were endorsers, never paid sponsors, and they posted their real experiences because they loved Gnarly. CrossFitters who loved their doughnuts. An athlete who took on the trails in a wheelchair instead of on a mountain bike, not by choice, but because instead of giving in, they lived gnarly. We never claimed to make anyone gnarly, and we never told anyone they were lacking. They already are gnarly. Gnarly is there to support who they already are.

Grassroots athletes chosen for being real
Every photo outside, never in a gym
Athlete-endorsed program, no paid posts
Affiliate program built on natural placement
Website and social built to connect with athletes

03

Grassroots, close to home

We never expected people to come to us. We went to them, where they were: in the office, on the trail, in the mountains, on their bike, on the summit. We introduced Gnarly to local shops one by one, hosted CrossFit competitions across Utah, and went big at trade shows with the same natural feel. Then Whole Foods. And it just grew from there.