The colours and the typefaces also work well together, adding to the bold effect.
24 October 2011
Jack Hughes' Lovely Designs
The colours and the typefaces also work well together, adding to the bold effect.
Beautiful Things
Gorgeous offerings from Mary Kate McDevitt
Totally in love with the hand lettering, the beautiful colours and the prettiness and whimsy of her prints.
23 October 2011
Monoprix Packaging Design
Designed By Design Havas City
Inspired by Pop Art, this is the recent food packaging redesign of French brand Monoprix.
The designs look modern, high impact and attractive, using strong and contrasting colours that relate to the food inside the packaging, and a typeface with a strong design edge.
My favourite design is the for the butter, where the use of red and yellow really stand out, and looks really fun and unique, whilst a strong modern edge is given by the use of text and layout.
22 October 2011
Retro Sainsburys
Creative Review's blog has done a feature on the Sainsburys In House Design Team.
There were some really cool designs that I noticed in the feature, mostly taken from the period of the 60's, 70's.
Peter Dixon was the Head of Design, and the aesthetics of the packaging were heavily influenced by the modernist design era, made evident by the geometric shapes, the gothic, sans serif typefaces, and the simple layouts.
I think what makes them interesting is their use of illustration and pattern, and the typefaces, which in some ways, look incredibly current, but in other ways have a definite feel of nostalgia and a retro look. The look incredibly distinctive, probably more so than any packaging available in Supermarkets now.
Supermarket Packaging Design
The food packaging design of own brand products in the context of a supermarket is very important. They have to compete alongside brands that are more appealing because of their name or their reputation, so in order to be appealing, design needs to be simple but attractive in order to take away the stigma of shopping for the cheaper products.
Waitrose own brand basics - Designed by Turner Duckworth
Tesco Own Brand - Designer Unfortunately Unknown
Sainsburys Basics by Williams Murray Hamm
Morrisons Own by Coley Porter Bell
Morrisons and Waitrose are ahead in terms of design, whilst Sainsburys basics range is the more attractive of the value brands, by using simple colours, and cute hand-drawn style illustrations of the food within the packaging. The script font also adds a more aesthetically pleasing element to the packaging, however, the necessary use of the colour orange, in keeping with the colour of the supermarket's branding, makes it look slightly cheaper, but does fulfil the purpose of making it stand out to customers.
Tesco's own value brand struggles with its unattractive packaging, and is the only design that really increases the stigma attached to the purchasing of value products. Whilst the blue and red colours are visually strong and work well because of their contrast, the hues used, and the use of white stock cheapens the design, whilst the typeface used and the poorly designed layout retain simplicity but don't create something that is nice to look at.
Morrisons own brand range is currently undergoing a rebranding, under the direction of design firm Coley Porter Bell. The packaging of the ready meals uses a strong black background, an interesting and slightly unusual layout in terms of the placement of the Morrisons Bistro label, and a hand drawn typeface to create something modern and attractive, and whilst not groundbreaking design wise, it fulfils the needs of the client, and in fairness, shouldn't be expected to be forward thinking and heavily concept driven. The packaging of the soup is also successful in its use of colours, typeface and simplicity.
The strongest design is the Waitrose own brand packaging, courtesy of Turner Duckworth agency, who have used strong block colours, layout and a strong gothic font to make a simple and appealing design template for all of their own brand products. The clever use of photography in making a line of pattern on the range also works well with the design because it adds an element of fun to the packaging.
19 October 2011
Beautiful Things
These are some prints by Emily Allison Designs, inspired by her travels far and wide. I love the bright and nostalgic style of the prints, and the playful, child like joy conveyed by the text, the colours and the simple illustrations.
The use of typeface is simple and contemporary, adding more of an edge to the prints, and they basically just scream the relaxed happiness of holidays.
My favourites are Pinch Me, and See Ya Later Alligator, because they work really well as patterns, and the contrasting colours just draw my attention more. I also like the cheeky little slogans they have, which are joyful and funny.
Chocolate Packaging Design
Salivating as I blog.
The Classics...
The Classics...
So I'm going from one junk food to the next, I promise I'll get to healthy food packaging soon, although that doesn't sound anywhere near as fun.
Here are some examples of classic chocolate packaging found in the UK. Arguably, these are the most recognisable and iconic designs present at the moment, and are the largest chocolate brands.
Similarly to the crisp packaging of Walkers, each of these brands has a distinctive, block colour that forms the background for their packaging, and which can easily be associated with them across the food market. The Cadbury colour is a deep, regal shade of purple, that despite the more contemporary update of the rest of the packaging, signifies the history of the brand to the consumer, allowing them to stand out as a trusted chocolate producer.
Kit Kat and Mars go for louder colours, with red being the recurrence. Red is the most eye-catching colour, meaning that the packaging jumps out and attracts the customer. The use of white as the secondary colour in the Kit Kat packaging means that the presentation looks cleaner and fresher, and the black background of the Mars packaging is used possibly to create more of a temptation, as the combination of colours is often associated with the Devil, denoting that eating a Mars bar is sinful.
Cadburys is the only chocolate bar that employs a more formal Serif typeface, that again, signifies a sense of history and class when buying the dairy milk bar. Kit Kat and Mars use something more informal. Mars is more of a script style typeface, with a gold outline, which adds even more temptation, and in the script style aims it at more of a female market. Kit Kat's typeface is gothic and modern, and again creates something that looks clean and fresh.
The Newer Ones...
Most of these chocolates are not the usual ones you would find at the Supermarket. I'm being presumptuous, but I'm guessing that these are the chocolates you find at Selfridges, aimed at a more middle class market. Quality in the design is made evident through the attention to detail, the colours used are less bold and garish, and the typefaces used are more design led. The chocolates that look most appealing are Black Magic, Mast Brothers Chocolate and Divine, because they retain a classic design, whilst updating it in a more contemporary and visually appealing way. The modern gothic text on the Black Magic chocolate bars works well with the use of geometric shapes, which look almost like origami and makes it look more edgy than the previous design. The use of black and a strong colour also works well and again, creates a contemporary feel.
Mast Brothers Chocolates has more of a vintage feel, with the use of a quite nostalgic/ironic wallpaper style print adorning the packaging, however, the use if a gothic font in a box, containing minimal text, balances the print.
Divine chocolate also uses a print, but the use of colours and illustrations is more contemporary by keeping a simple colour palette, and also the use of neutrals and metallics gives it a more luxurious edge, in keeping with the name divine.
The other chocolates have used more of an irony and sense of humour, particularly in the case of the 'Bochox' and 'Girth Control', where they've played with medical terms, and the idea that chocolate is the best medicine, and the designs also play cleverly with the packaging of pharmaceutical products, with the clinical designs and the same typefaces used by the real products.
Recession Bites is more conceptual than the other chocolate packagings. The neutral colours and the use of a cardboard style packaging looks very austere and signifies the idea of the recession in the presentation of the product. The name Recession Bites, is again playful, merging the slight money issue everyone is having with the idea of eating the chocolate, and the typeface used is very bold and is possibly more aimed at men, as it is bold and chunky.
13 October 2011
Beautiful Things
These promotional posters were created by Tyler Stout, for the Tour of the Flight of The Conchords.
I adore these posters, not simply because of the fact that I love Flight of The Conchords, but also because of their unashamed wackiness.
Most posters now are quite minimalist, which often works well and usually I like that style, but these look so refreshing because they look like an incredible amount of effort has gone into them, showing that the designer cares about his designs. The illustration also fits perfectly with the offbeat and quirky feel of the show and of their music, whilst the bright and varying colour schemes reflect the bizarre qualities of their music and the fun and often childlike lyrics.
I know it would be a challenge for me to ever produce something as intricate as this, but I'd love to produce promotional posters for both music, TV and film, and maybe one day my illustration skills will mean I can create something that an artist will want to use to promote their work.
10 October 2011
Crisp Packaging Design
Because researching into food packaging is such a broad arena, I'm going to look at packaging for different food types in each post. Since I had no idea where on earth to start, I just went for the first food that popped into my head (does that make me a fatty?)
These brands have been around for a long time, and they all have very distinctive and iconic packaging that has been developed over the years, but still retains the same design details.
Bright block colours seem to be a recurring theme in the packaging of Walkers, Kettle Chips and Pringles, which links to the fact there are many differing flavours, and often the colours link to the flavour, such as pink for prawn cocktail, or orange for Roast Chicken.
These colours work well because most people know from a young age that each colour represents a flavour, so less information is needed in the form of writing, because the colour acts as a signifier. All 3 of the above crisp manufacturers also have very distinctive logos that people are again immediately aware of. The Walkers Logo is bold, bright and simple. A banner that declares the name encasing a crisp. This means that the logo becomes universal. Using the image of the crisp means that it's quickly identifiable. Using the bright red and yellow means that viewers are also immediately attracted, whilst the use of font and the simple block style means that it never really looks dated, which is something that is very important in the branding of this product.
Whilst Walkers logo remains quite modern, the logo for Seabrooks crisps has a more classic style, displaying to the customer the history of the product. The use of white, blue and red creates a nautical feel to the product, which is reinforced by the use of rope to create the font in Seabrooks, and both of these points link clearly to the name of the product.
Pringles, like Walkers is a more modern style of packaging. The bright colours again attract the consumer immediately, whilst the logo is another classic. From the use of the font, which is relaxed and fun, noted from the cartoony style and the logo, this product is obviously being branded as a party food, and a crisp that is made for sharing between friends, whereas the smaller packaging and the more formal styles show that Walkers and Seabrooks crisps are designed for the individual.
Whilst the above crisps are the golden oldies in the marketplace, the following crisp brands are relatively new, and the packaging displays have a more directional and design conscious style.
The crisps displayed here have been released into an already saturated market, meaning that their design must display clearly their USP, guaranteeing that they stand out from their competitors. Obviously taste counts too, but not when you're a first time buyer.
From the use of font on each of these, more formal and contemporary than Walkers, Seabrooks and Pringles, it's clear that they are aimed at a more middle class consumer, particularly Red Sky and Kettle Chips. Both brands also include a lot more information on their flavours, (some might say in a pretentious manner? but not me obviously...) which is meant to show the consumer that more thought and effort has been placed on sourcing quality ingredients for the crisps, and also makes the consumer believe that the crisp will be of higher quality because of it.
Kettle Chips is the only one of these brands to use a block colour as the background, and the colour used is also presented in a matt finish, which makes it look less tacky.
Red Sky's use of colour is in the form of a gradient, which creates the sense of a sunset, something natural and beautiful which links in the with the fact the product is 100% natural. The image of the hill on the bottom half of the image also displays the nature of this product, with the sun in the logo again reinforcing this.
Real crisps has the simplest but most crowded format for its presentation, with a lot of heavy text being used, and only one small image and minimal colour. This is one of the individual packets, which means it would be place near to packages such as Walkers and Seabrooks, and so must stand out to attract a potential customer. Because it uses so much text, it looks a lot more unique and perhaps a little cooler than Walkers, so it would be successful in standing out, however I really don't like it, because it feels so clunky and the images feel too random for the product as they aren't really explained.
The most fun packaging belongs to Phileas Fogg crisps, which uses illustration in simple colours to set itself apart. The use of the logo incorporated into the hot air balloon is also a nice design touch, as it allows the buyers eye to flow across the packaging, taking in both the information and the fun presentation. The wording of the product is also slightly archaic 'Naturally the Finest Ingredients' (only imagine it in Jeeve's voice), which creates a sense of nostalgia that is quirky and fun for the consumer, and would make it more attractive to a buyer.
My favourite packaging for crisps out of these are the Seabrooks logo because it's original and has an old school sort of charm to it, and also I like the Phileas Fogg design because it's so different and creates a sense of adventure which can only ever be a good thing. Unless it's an adventure with the Pied Piper.
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