Mamdani admin picks cult-favorite olive oil designers for $1M city-owned grocery store branding deal

The design studio behind the viral Graza olive oil squeeze bottle secured an up to $1 million contract to brand Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s taxpayer-subsidized grocery stores.The city’s Economic Development Corporation — which is overseeing the plan to build a municipally-owned grocery store in each borough — recently awarded the up to three year deal to Brooklyn-based branding company Gander.“We’ve been asked many times if we have a dream client or dream project.Without a doubt, this is it,” Gander co-founder Katie Levy said in a statement. The design studio is known for whipping up the hip olive oil company Graza’s branding, and it’s also behind the colorful design for high-protein, low sugar cereal Magic Spoon, Curbed first reported.Gander will work with firms Librarie, Noble Signs and Seven Roots to come up with a name for the city-owned grocers, logos, employee uniforms and even merchandise, according to EDC documents.“Our municipal grocery stores should feel like they belong to the neighborhoods they serve — because they do,” Mamdani said in a statement. Boutique brand consultancy Librarie, which is based in the Big Apple, will help with messaging, while Brooklyn “multi-disciplinary creative studio” Noble Signs will design storefronts and the overall look of the shops.

Seven Roots, a worker-owned Wisconsin grocery consulting firm, will advise on operations.Focus groups with New Yorkers will also be conducted in order to shape the brand, according to the EDC documents.The plush contract — awarded to Gander on September 28 — comes on top of the $70 million in funding already set aside for the project, which Mamdani promised would be completed by the end of his term.But only two of the locations for the five grocery shops — which will offer 30% discounts on core goods — have been announced so far.The one in The Bronx, in Hunts Point, is scheduled to open in 2027, while the Manhattan location, in Harlem, isn’t slated to open un...