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sweetgreen started in 2007 as a small salad shop in Washington DC and grew into a chain of more than 120 restaurants. Its old wordmark was a light, widely spaced lowercase name in grey.

On 26 May 2021 the company introduced "a new brand identity to reimagine fast food," developed with the strategy and design consultancy Collins and its in-house agency led by executive creative director Thomas Wilder. Co-founder Nathaniel Ru said the company wanted the identity "to help re-imagine what the fast food industry looks like in the years to come."

The wordmark stayed lowercase but got heavier and tighter. It is "a redrawn wordmark created in partnership CKL Type, Collins and the in-house brand studio," It's Nice That reported, and based on SweetSans, a custom sans by Jeremy Mickel of MCKL Type "inspired by signage found throughout Los Angeles, specifically around the Silver Lake Reservoir." Wilder called the new marks "bolder, stronger." Grenette, a serif from Colophon, joined as a second typeface.

Collins' Alex Wallace stressed continuity: the system "builds on what was already strong" and "will still feel familiar to anyone who already loves the brand." The rollout covered store design, signage, packaging, digital products and new uniforms, and the first glimpse came in a campaign with Naomi Osaka, the brand's first athlete partner.

The design world took note. MCKL shared the "New logo and fonts in collaboration with @wearecollins," and one investor's account summed it up as "Lookin' good @sweetgreen."