Pip Snacks is a Brooklyn-based, family-owned retailer of sustainably-farmed, home-made snacks and fine foods. The brand is perhaps based known for its signature product, Pipcorn, an originally-crafted style of mini-heirloom popcorn. 

The idea for Pipcorn came when the family of founders stumbled upon an old bag of heirloom corn while moving apartments and decided to pop it. Having never tried heirloom popcorn, they weren’t sure what to expect. 

After realizing they’d created the best popcorn they’d ever tasted, Jeff Martin, his sister Jen, and his wife Teresa got the idea to build a brand; Pip Snacks. They launched in 2012, selling hand-stamped bags popped in their mom’s spaghetti pot. 

Since then, Pipcorn has grown substantially. Their big break came a few months after launching when the company was featured on Oprah’s iconic yearly list of favorite things. Pipcorn would go on to be included on Oprah’s list three more times. 

As the brand grew, so did the assortment of products it sold. Along-side it’s signature popcorn, Pip Snacks began selling crackers, cheeseballs, and corn chips. In the following months, Pip Snacks sold online and in a number of retailers, including Whole Foods where it was sold nation-wide. The Martins even made an appearance on ABC’s Shark Tank.

Pip Snacks website serves as a great design inspiration for any merchant looking to build a brand around a signature food product. The Pip Snacks brand is about two things: tradition and sustainability. 

This blend of old and new concepts permeates Pip’s branding. Website copy emphasizes the historical tradition of heirloom farming along-side pledges to preserve agricultural biodiversity and sustainability. 

This point is really brought home on the page about heirloom seeds. The copy talks of heirloom farming as being a historical tradition passed down for generations that have been forgotten to the sands of time. 

But the copy also looks forward with optimism. It talks about how heirloom growing helps protect the genetic diversity of our food supply because they are open-pollinated. In heirloom farming, each generation of heirloom seeds come from a random set of parents, helping to preserve agricultural biodiversity. 

Pip Snacks goes the extra mile to magnify the naturalness of its product. In a world of snacks pumped with salt, sugar, and harmful additives⁠—the down-to-earth, sustainable nature of the Pip Snacks brand works wonders.  

In terms of website design, Pip Snacks makes use of aesthetic, visual elements that touch on these concepts. Lighter shades of brown are used as the brand colors on its packaging and through its online store. 

Brown is a common color for products hoping to emphasize their all-natural ingredients. Brown is the color of tree bark, sticks, autumn leaves, and rich soil, so it often gives an outdoorsy aura to a brand. Lighter shades also tend to have a calming effect. 

Pip Snacks website design makes heavy use of movement as well. Elements often jitter, collapse, pop, or shift in a way that emphasizes their peculiarities.

For example, the animated banner image on the home-page works to emphasize their branding through subtle movement. Illustrations of cornfields gently swaying in the wind, turning windmills, and silos overflowing with popcorn express shining optimism for the future while paying homage to the past. 

Hover your mouse over the brand name at the top, and the letter “O” jumps and recedes like an unpopped kernel. When you scroll over the bags of Pipcorn below, the product image shakes back and forth, as if being shaken by a hand.

Even without sound, you can almost hear the maraca-like noise of Pipcorn shaking around in the bag. Even the navigation menu moves in a peculiar way, with menu options unfolding like a drawer of old recipe books. 

Subtle movements like this are a great way to grab a user’s attention and focus it on your product. Taken as a whole, the elements work to build up a picture of a brand’s aura in the mind of an audience. 

Pipsnacks website does an expert job at branding the product in this way. For any merchant looking for the best website design ideas, Pipcorn’s online store serves as a perfect example.