Made with Love
Homestyle Italian sauce packaging gets a facelift.
Sauces ‘n Love, Inc. is a line of homestyle sauces prepared fresh daily and sold internationally. The brand is inspired by lingering at the table, sharing meals with family and friends.
QNY Creative (www.qnycreative.com) was called upon to address a problem billboarding the original package design on shelf. “The customer was getting confused, regarding what was what flavor because all of the labels were the same, besides the name change,” explains Anna Urban, QNY Creative’s strategy director.
A callout system was developed, to provide icons for gluten-free, light-cream, 40% more and vegan, and to relieve an oversaturated front label. The label copy was cut down by almost 40%, to create a more knowledge based information system; depicting the product’s health benefits, convenience, reuse of the Olcott Plastics Inc., (www.olcottplastics.com) BPA-free jar, as well as microwave and dishwasher safe compatibility.
Ezio Burani, QNY Creative’s founder and creative director, added illustrations that depict the major ingredients inside each variety, replacing the brand’s copy heavy mantra on the front of the pack. An overcrowding issue with the brand’s logo was addressed on pack by Burani as well, “We resolved the matter because we thought that the “n” was a bit overcrowded on the top.”
Staying true to the roots of the brand, an Italian inspired color palette of red and green was utilized, printed by QSX Labels (www.qsxlabels.com). The kraft paper wrap-around, supplied by Green Bay Packaging (www.gbp.com), addresses the Italian design scheme, serving as “white.”
Discerning Design
Bean packaging says no to preservatives.
Pacific Foods’ desire to provide simple and fresh ingredients, to consumers doesn’t end with the consumable product; it takes pride in the fact that preservatives and its packaging have never met. Pacific Foods exclusively uses Tetra Pak (www.tetrapak.com), which allows food to stay fresh without chemicals or preservatives.
A line of six USDA Certified Organic bean varieties was introduced this year, by Pacific Foods. The new line of baked and refried beans is housed in the BPA-free Tetra Recart packaging, which preserves the beans’ texture and flavor.
Russ Perkins, graphic designer, Pacific Foods, believes, in terms of designing graphics, the Tetra Recart verses a can is less challenging because, “The areas on a carton are far more clearly defined than a can.” The carton also accommodates more storage space for consumers and retailers. Approaching the packaging design, Perkins desired, “A strong brand block, differentiation at the SKU level and strong appetite appeal.” This was achieved by using bold bowl photography of the beans in a home environment.
Each variety is distinguished by use of color; green banners across the top of the pack represent vegetarian and shades of reds and oranges denote non-vegetarian options. Clearly labeled descriptions in a sans serif font paired with large product photographs help consumers distinguish the varieties on shelf.
“The font style and color palette map to our brand guide and package design system,” explains Perkins, “garnishes and background elements, such as napkins and table settings were chosen to complement the color schematic chosen for each SKU.” Perkins depicts benefits of the BPA-free Tetra Recart: The carton packaging “delivers fresh and natural tasting products for up to 24 months,” and “the package is made with 65% paperboard, a renewable resource.”
It’s Raining Cats and Dogs
Specialty pet care packaging design hits Australian market by storm.
Addressing a nation with the highest pet ownership statistic in the world, Nestlé Purina PetLife aims to evolve the Australian pet specialty category. Highlighting the brand’s expertise in the pet care industry the creative team at Bluemarlin, (www.bluemarlinbd.com), Sydney transformed the PetLife brand from a functional and uninspiring collection of products, into a go-to destination for pet owners and professional groomers.
Bluemarlin devised an ambitious list of design directives, approaching the project. Elevating the essentially nonbranded pet specialty category by presenting a lifestyle and emotion-driven offering to the market with branded appeal, was high on the list of priorities. The extensive offerings of PetLife required a design-led platform with a strong foundation, to allow the brand to cross multiple categories and segments, accommodating growth.
Ian Catling, managing director, Bluemarlin, Sydney explains the design goals, “A compelling brand image for PetLife was developed and based around the belief that, if a consumer is going to spend above-the-breadline money on their pet, they expect the same level of quality for it as they would for themselves,” The Bluemarlin Sydney team drew design inspiration from premium personal care brands, featuring bold typography to create a more coherent and navigable architecture for the PetLife range of products.
With no assistance of any alternative marketing spend, PetLife’s grooming range sales increased by 230% within nine months of rolling out the revitalized brand. The tethering range increased by 263%, during the same period and the bedding range sales increased by 400%, in the first six months. Overall brand growth after launching the new packaging design yielded a cool 284% in sales.
The contemporary style of the packaging utilizes a grey/blue hero color for the brand, reflecting the premium quality and motivating look, which tested well in consumer research. Pet photography addresses the emotional appeal of pet ownership.
All American Craft
A homegrown spirit from the inside out.
Spring 44 is an all American craft distillery that uses spring water sourced from a remote area in the northern Colorado Rocky Mountains. Founders Jeff Lindauer, Russ Wall and Jeff McPhie aimed to create a package design with the ability to capture the purity and splendor of the spring water paired with an authentic craft distilling processes.
The packaging design project was completed in-house, by Spring 44 founder Russ Wall. When prompted to what the design goals for the line entailed Wall describes, “The goal of our packaging was differentiation. At the time, every brand was trying to out shout one another with extravagant bottle designs. We chose to whisper. We selected a clean simple bottle that let the spirits do the talking,”
Photography was utilized on pack, incorporating actual photos of key ingredients.
The heart of the visual standards for Spring 44’s package design is based on sacred geometry symbols, uniting the spirit varieties as a family. Each product features its own variation of Metatron’s Cube
TricorBraun (www.tricorbraun.com) supplies the glass stock bottles; PrimeFlex (www.primeflex.com) supplies the labels. Printing the photographic images involves a six-color label with a four-color process, with high-build spot varnish and temperature-sensitive ink. The temperature sensitive ink turns blue when the spirit reaches a chilled 44 degrees.
American-designed font house Emigre (www.emigre.com) serves as the bank for Spring 44’s fonts. The main font employed is Vendetta All Petite Caps, selected to convey a modern, progressive American style.
Big Ben’s Facelift
Beloved gin receives royal treatment design.
Maxi Dry Gin, a favorite with Quebecers for more than 50 years recently underwent a complete redesign by Perry Visual Works Inc. (PVW [www.pvwdesign.ca]).
After Mosaiq’s acquisition of the brand, nearly 15 years ago, a number of label refresh exercises graced the packaging of Maxi Dry Gin. Three main design points or distinguishing equities of the brand remained consistent over the years: a blue gradient printed on foil, the Big Ben clock tower and the Maxi Dry Gin logo, featuring a sans serif font, with the “Y” serving as a martini glass. The redesign encompassed a difficult challenge: creating hype about Maxi Dry Gin with intentions of attracting a new younger audience, while respecting the existing consumer by presenting a design that would not alienate them.
A series of drastically different designs was created by PVW and presented to Mosaiq. Perry Diavatopoulos, principal, creative/design director of PVW comments on the exploratory phase designs, “Like any other client, they want to see extremes. They want to see, ‘what’s an evolution look like verses a revolution,’” Diavatopoulos notes the strong impact the Big Ben clock tower played in the redesign, as it is one of the most recognizable components of the brand. “The challenge became, how do we bring that to life in a different form.”
The new design represents a combination of elements Mosaiq and PVW agreed upon for the direction of Maxi Dry Gin, including sans serif type and an image of Big Ben, void of color.
Revolutionary Rum
Rich history and tradition inspire magic realism in packaging design.
Don Papa Rum emerged from founder Stephen Carroll’s belief that an interesting opportunity was available in the rum category. A growing trend is sweeping the spirits market, in which premium and more distinct rums from all over the world are desired by consumers. Bleeding Heart Rum Company was established in 2011 to address this preference and harness the natural resources of the Philippines, the world’s second largest rum producer in the world, unknown to many.
The idea was to create a single island rum from the main sugar producing island in the Philippines, Negros Occidental. This premium rum needed a distinct story, personality and image, in order to develop as an international brand. After a year of development Don Papa rum was released in Metro Manila and major resort areas of the Philippines. “The original objective of the design was to create a strong and unique identity for the brand and to capture some of the magic and surrealism of the Philippines,” explains Carroll.
Don Papa, the name of the rum itself was inspired by the historical story of a man affectingly dubbed Papa Isio, one of the lesser known figures of the Philippine revolution against Spain. Papa Isio, a native Pilipino was a nationalist who fought for social justice joining the movement to gain independence. Carroll describes the packaging design, executed by Stranger & Stranger (www.strangerandstranger.com) as an attempt to reflect the uniqueness of the island.
Saver Glass (www.saverglass.com) supplied the bottle, which features a natural rubber cork. An intricately designed label printed by a high quality Italian printer features a rendition of Don Papa himself against a lively background of quirky illustrations, including a sugar cane field, filigree, various insects and critters in an aged color palette with red touches. The edges of the label are irregular and scalloped adding to the aged, revolutionary era appeal.
“It’s got a lot of lovely touches and it’s wonderful for a brand to have multiple elements that can reinforce the whole idea and the story,” adds Carroll.