How Traction Factory Captured Delta Diner’s Nostalgic Charm

The Delta Diner, a unique stainless steel marvel nestled in the woods of northwestern Wisconsin, is renowned for its retro charm and unforgettable comfort food. Its nostalgic 1940s roadside diner glow attracts patrons from miles away. Traction Factory, the creative team behind the Delta Diner’s retro product packaging and marketing campaign, has successfully captured this unique selling point. Under the guidance of design director David Brown, the team crafted a visual identity that seamlessly blends the diner’s mid-century vibe with modern-day retail allure. Their playful yet meticulous approach turned hot sauces, coffee, and spicy pickled garlic into must-have take-homes while maintaining a homespun feel. Celebrating their win in the 2024 Advertising Awards, this project exemplifies the magic that happens when creativity meets commerce.

By: David Brown, Design Director, Traction Factory

An oddity is hidden deep within the forests of northwestern Wisconsin: a gleaming, stainless steel-clad diner. Known for its unrivaled offerings and hospitality, it garners patrons from hundreds of thousands of miles away to eagerly wait hours for a booth simply for the experience of time travel and comfort food. 

It’s in this environment that the Delta Diner has allowed us to assist them over the years in developing creative that’s reminiscent of a bygone era––one rich in design, illustration, and engaging copywriting, little nuggets that can transcend today’s blur of digital media. 

The items shown as part of the poster series were, at the time, only available in the diner and made onsite. Their chief desire was to make these packaged products (hot sauces, coffee, and spicy pickled garlic) available to customers on the way out and in retail markets. 

Once we began to work through the opportunities and requirements, we realized that a more thorough examination of their brand would simplify the process of flushing out creative work for the entire campaign. What we started with was, at best, a loose set of guidelines that needed tightening to bring it all under control and avoid the pitfalls of a ‘homespun’ interpretation. While that last point is still relevant in a privately owned diner, bringing a defined visual vocabulary to future marketing efforts meant setting that for the client. Once accomplished, the real work could bring these products to life on shelves. 

As with any food packaging, there are pretty strict parameters that can make determining its prominence and deciding where the ‘fun factor’ will live a challenge. 

In addition to working with typography that befits the diner, efforts were made to develop small design flourishes that could ground this in the world of a diner. The hot sauces were the first item to tackle. As is the case with most food products that have some ‘heat,’ it’s common to approach the Scoville scale with some sort of infographic. As this would’ve seemed entirely arbitrary for a mid-century look, we developed a character that would carry through to other products, but most notably for the sauces, be a frontline cook whose facial expression could change depending on the heat level. The same character was adapted to work with the Belly Warmer coffee label. Subtle touches like poor registration and mottled type were added to give these the impression that a small print shop produced the labels. 

Once we’d developed a system for the packaged goods, we needed a way to help sell it beyond the diner. We landed on posters as the most appropriate way of communicating these were available in local retail environments. Again, instead of creating materials that felt like one-offs, we developed a structure that felt like a family of products. The common elements were the framing device that includes a container for copy and the subtle outline of Wisconsin that pinpoints the diner’s location. The team then went to work on writing humorous yet engaging headlines to draw in the viewer, each tailored to reflect the personality of the owners and the signature, exclusive products. The final touch was to illustrate the products to reflect the hand-drawn look of poster work before the digital age. 

We want to thank the Delta Diner for an exciting assignment for the team, which allowed us the opportunity to play with all the crayons in the box. We’re grateful to Graphis for selecting our creative for a featured case study to highlight our work and its story. Creating magic at the intersection of art and commerce is what we do; being recognized in this way is truly gratifying. Congratulations, and thank you to our client team, partners, and especially Delta Diner for bringing this excellent work to life.

David Brown is the design director at Traction Factory in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. As the creative lead, he’s most concerned with elements of design and messaging and endeavoring to get everything more than right. He’s a stickler for the finer points of creativity, and nary a project leaves the house without his eyes on it. Before joining Traction Factory, he cut his teeth on brand work in categories such as beer, airline, and food industries. When not sweating the details of agency creative, he’s immersing himself in the messier aspects of printmaking or elbows deep in darkroom processing trays.

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