EAT.

EAT. opened thirteen years ago, their ambition was to serve quality food, soups and coffee to the people of London. On the opening of their first shop, everything had to be done, food and the brand, shop and packaging design...the list continued. The bit I am most interested in is the packaging and branding.























The packaging is really simple and in all its products uses white space to it's advantage. Usually it is just typography on it's designs - small illustrations are also used sometimes but this does not over face.





One thing they also do is use the product instead of illustrations. This is something that I am looking into whilst designing my packaging designs. Is this can be done successfully and simply, it looks fantastic.












One other element that I need to take into consideration is whether or not the product needs to be shown. As with sandwiches, would you buy a sandwich that you couldn't see? No I know I wouldn't, most people want to see the bread and the filling when purchasing something like this.

Elmwood

As I am doing my FMP on packaging design I have been looking at a wide range of designs. Elmwood have designed more than 20,000 packs in the last 15years for some of the most successful retail brands including Asda, Durex and Black Magic.

Their relationship with Asda has been going on for 15years, they have worked with them over all aspects of design and designed over 15,000 product designs for them.

An old piece of design work they worked on in 1997 was this. This new design boosted sales by 29.5%...WOW!!!



The packages below are newer designs Elmood have done. The image used is very nice, it shows how fruity the product us without forcing it on you with type. It is a nice eye catching touch, especially along side bold colours.





First thing I thought when I saw the images below was not Asda, the designs one these are great. The simple typeface working along side simple yet precise imagery. The black and white bold colours of the bottles work against each other and work along with the label on each.



Using the soup (product) as the letter O in Soup. I am unsure on the effectiveness of this. At first thought I did like the product but maybe it is a bit to obvious and many colours are used, which isn't something I like in packaging. With asda being the client though it does work with products they already have in stall and their overall style.



Elmwood helped Durex move from the world's number one condom brand into the bigger more holistically focused area of sexual well being.

The condom packs were the first to experience the change. The aim was to make the product stand out more on the shelves. Below is how the product used to look.



By simply moving the logo into the center of the pack it enabled Elmwood to increase the size of the logo. Also a slight change in colour made the packages more vibrant. New product below.


The small changes have made a big impact.

As Elmwood were aiming the re-brand on Sexual well-being they realised this was more than just safe sex. They developed Durex existing products into Durex Play.



The colours used are very eye catching and the overall designs are fun yet simple.

Success is what makes packaging worth while....2007-2008 sales was up by 9%, shares increased by 35%.

Sovereign

Sovereign are a leading 'to-go' packaging company, supplying the likes of Pret A Manger, Eat and Itsu. They need to be aware with whats going on with the companies that are keeping up to speed with the eating habits of millions. They went to Spinach Design when they wanted to bring out their own-brand packaging range, Mono. They know the importance of carrying a quick bite or coffee to your desk without crushing its contents. Above all, they understand the importance of not holding a bag that looks, cheap.

Show food or not?

As I am currently designing food packaging I came across a problem. Does the food need to be shown? As I had already been in contact with Karen Vance from FutureBrand I emailed her.





I find it very useful when contacting Karen, she always backs up what she is trying to explain to me by using images. It has helped me think about how I will produce my packaging.

Typography

I came across some fantastic typography posters on a website. The website displayed work from different designers.





Working with typography can bring out so many unique patterns and ideas. All the images are above are very impressive but what makes them even more great is the fact that they are all hand drawn. That is amazing in my view, I wish I had the skill to produce something so eye pleasing.

BBC

On my degree course we were given a great opportunity, we were set a live brief by the BBC. The brief was to design two booklets that would be given to BBC staff that would soon be experiencing a massive move from London to Salford.




I worked on this piece of work with another student. Our idea was to make the booklet bright and cheerful. It needed to be set out for easy reading. We focused on the saying "every cloud has a silver lining"the imagery we used was bbc weather symbols combined with imagery linked to weather.

As we were told that we should consider up and coming technology we decided to link up the booklet to further information using a QR Code.

Fruit Juice

Japanese industrial designer Naoto Fukasawa has created a series of creative fruit juice packages that have the look and feel of the fruit they contain. The design imitates the colour and texture of the fruit skin.
Alongside banana, strawberry and kiwi fruit “juice skins” Naoto Fukasawa also offers a wild card “silken tofu skin” for a carton of soya milk. (shown below)
These products are not all available to buy at the moment but I am sure they would be a great success as they are unique and fun.

Heal's Duvet coding - 999 design

The design work below is from 999 design - they were asked to redesign the coding for Heals duvet selection. Heals is well known for its distinctive character and innovation.

As the stores are constantly updated with different designs and products it makes it an inspirational and enjoyable place to shop. This is something to keep in mind when researching their packaging.
999 design thought that "The existing system was dull and confusing for staff to implement and needed a complete strategic rethink. In order to uphold Heals reputation for quality and creativity we were asked to inject some personality into the packaging in order to make it more eye catching." (http://www.999design.com/clients/Consumer+goods/Heals)

The cracked the project by using an easy to follow system of stickers. A colour code was used. I find colour to be the best thing to help navigate through a set of products.

Heals candle packaging

The packaging below was designed by aloof design, it was designed for a new range scented candles. The final product was very effective.






One characteristic I noticed when looking at Heals packaging and products is they like to stay clean and crisp using black and white ans then an added colour, usually only one more colour is added to each product. The colour added is always a bold colour or a pastel colour similar to the ones above. This is something I need to be aware of when designing my packaging.

Heals packaging

Whilst on the Heals website keeping an eye out for interesting packaging I came across the following products.

This is the packaging design for a set of scented candles. The main thing I noticed was the use of block colour that was continued onto the product itself. the floral decorative shape outlined on the packaging is very delicate and not extremely noticeable. This product make it obvious the main characteristics of Heals design - bold block colours, the use of geometric shapes and angels and delicate illustrations.This image below is from a limited addition of christmas foods Heals sold. This is very simple and if I am honest not very eye catching and does not sell the product very well, it has not got the sophisticated look that most of Heals products have.
The bottom image is also part of the limited addition collection - the two have no similarities. I however really like this product although very simple. The crisp silver packaging gives the product a fresh look - as the jar is transparent the product is visible, the colours of the chocolate add to the crisp and fresh look that Heals go for. The typography compliments the whole thing - using the same typeface throughout the design but altering the size.

Marks and spencers packaging

I have had a look at existing packaging for Marks and Spencers.



The above image is for their Fair Trade and Organic teas and coffees. The bold blacks and reds really work well together especially being used in block shapes.

Waitrose

I am still currently looking at packaging that has been produced recently as for my final major project I am looking at designing food packaging or Heal's. I am interested in looking at packaging that already is used and how effective this may be. I noticed the Waitrose work by Pearl Fisher, there designs look sophisticated which is the look I need to go for.

The above images look very simple but I think the colours chosen show off the photography really well. Colour is an essential aspect that needs a lot of consideration.

The above packages are for microwavable meals. Again colour plays a main part in the packaging they are bold in your face and crisp. The use of typography is the main element of the design work with slight uses of colour and information in the right hand side.

The ready meals were a great success, in its first year after their re brand volume sales were up 63%.

The below images are for bottle designs they worked on. I am not so impressed by the Gin bottle though if I am honest, I like the use of red on the label but I am unsure on the positioning of the elements and the label.




However the above image of the black bottles are a great improvement. It is obvious they have gone for a sophisticated typography look. The way they have set out the type on all three bottles works well in relation to the shape of the bottle. It is obvious the label design look the bottle shape into consideration.

The below image is the designs they did for jars. These look very different to the other packaging designs but the colours are used again to represent they food. These look a lot more fun but still look crisp and sharp. I like how they are produced on see through stickers so its only the typography seen.