It Just Meals Good™
Developed with 72andSunny, Panera’s new brand platform, It Just Meals Good™ harnesses the emotional power of a real meal. As Creative Director I guided creative expression across the campaign ecosystem and led our in-house creative team in translating the new platform into an integrated campaign spanning digital and in-cafe experiences, photography and product storytelling.
2026 ANA In-House Excellence Award Winner — Rebrand (Small Teams)
2026 ADC Annual Awards — Typography Merit (Panera® Bravo)
Client
Panera Bread
Year
2025–present
Range of work
Creative direction
Brand evolution
Content strategy
Photo direction
Collaborators
72andSunny / concept & TV
Playground / art direction & POP design
Mairead McGonagle / copy direction
Rici Hoffarth / packaging
Hannah Becker / copywriting
Steve Sangapore / digital design
Gabriela Bernardo / digital design
Casey Jones / gift card design
Monotype / typeface design
Gentl & Hyers / photography
The brand platform. At a time when competitors treat meals like fuel and value like math, Panera reclaims the idea of a meal as something enjoyable, human and curated: an experience that satisfies cravings, fits your mood, and makes you feel good—physically and emotionally. “It Just Meals Good” is an assertion that a Panera meal isn’t one thing—“It” is whatever you need it to be: a caffeinated meal to boost productivity, a quiet comfort meal, a celebration meal with friends, a perfect combination of flavors in a You Pick Two meal, and more.
Cohesive brand system rollout. Messaging evolved from functional descriptions to expressive, occasion-led storytelling, defining meals through flavor, feeling, and real-life moments. Simple, bold declarations like “This is a meal” anchored the new voice, while supporting copy added warmth, humor, and cultural relevance across product innovation, value, and loyalty communications.
Visually, crave and confidence were elevated through macro food photography, expressive color and typography, and dynamic use of iconography. A bespoke script typeface, Panera® Bravo developed with Monotype, became a core part of the new design system, blending indulgent texture with Panera’s hand-lettered bakery heritage. Distinctive cues—like the bread-break mnemonic and the café as a storytelling backdrop—created cohesion across touchpoints while preserving the warmth guests know and love.
Impact. Within its first year, It Just Meals Good began delivering against its objectives to rebuild relevance, strengthen differentiation and drive meaningful business impact. Digital communications—including email, push and SMS—outperformed prior periods across engagement and conversion in the campaign's first month. Ad recognition increased throughout the year, with the strongest gains among Gen Z, Millennials and Panera's Crave/Health Balancer target. At retail, the rebrand also drove year-over-year improvements across key experience metrics, including overall retail health, value, crave, warmth and likelihood to recommend.
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