After visiting the Warhol this week, I remembered how much I like Pop Art. Pop art is based on our pop culture and the mass media. It’s complete opposite of traditional fine art. It uses bold and bright colors and recognizable imagery. Thanks to Andy Warhol, Pop art found its way into package design. We are all familiar with his Campbell’s Soup cans/boxes and Brillo boxes. Warhol once said that, “Pop art is about liking things,” and it’s because of his liking of Campbell’s Soup that he made his iconic works. He felt that, “it [Campbell’s Soup] was the quintessential American product: he marveled that the soup always tasted the same, like Coca-Cola, whether consumed by prince or pauper.”
Fast forward 56 years to this century, you can still find Pop art in packaging and advertising. Take this packaging concept for the Goode Coffee Company. It was designed by Allan Revah who wanted to show the energizing qualities of coffee and caffeine with strong, expressive visuals. The coffee cups and bags have abstract geometric patterns and shapes on them. They’re enhanced by the loud, bright colors, too. They clearly have a Pop art style to them. I personally think they’re reminiscent comic book works of Roy Lichtenstein. Even though the packaging differs from one another, they still manage to belong to one company’s product.
This packaging was used for a Ricola Herbal Cough Drop ad campaign in Germany, sometime around 2012-2013. The campaign’s concept was “Unwrap Your Voice,” and it was created by the German agency, Jung Von Matt. The campaign was also a three-way collaborative effort between Jung Von Matt, the Scope Digital Studio, and illustrator Julien Canavezes.
The illustrations were really the highlight of this ad campaign. They’re fun, whimsical, and witty! They make you want to “unwrap” these cough drops, so you can see the whole illustration. Looking at his other illustrations, it seems that he uses a similar visual approach in all of his illustrations. They have a certain lifelike aspect to them, and yet, at the same time, they have an unconventional quality as well. His illustrations brightened up the idea of eating a cough drop for a sore throat. I find it amazing that he did all of these “faces” in Illustrator. Each of these “faces” asked the consumer to do one thing, “Unwrap [Our] Voice.”
It sucks that this ad campaign didn’t run in the US. It’s a really different approach to cough drop packaging, and is especially different to Ricola’s packaging here. I buy Ricola cough drops. If this packaging was used in the US a few years ago, I would have just bought them regardless having a sore throat. But they didn’t use this packaging here, and I just have the plain, boring packaging. Ugh! They would have attracted so many different audiences here because of the fact that these “faces” have hilarious expressions on them. I guess we’ll never know how consumers here would have reacted to them.
I came across this pasta packaging on Pinterest. These packages are designed by Moscow-based designer Nikita Konkin. He used a minimalist design approach to pasta packaging, and as a result, makes them stand out against other pasta packaging on the shelves. His concept was to let people see parts of the product itself, and that to in a fun and interesting way, incorporating the different pasta shapes. I found these packages to be fun and innovative. They really are one of a kind. They show what pasta you’re getting, the cooking time, and instructions clearly. The black and white box really stands out against the pasta color. The typeface Konkin chose also reflects the playfulness of the box and the pasta shapes, as well. Along with the pasta shapes, the texture of the pasta makes it actually look like hair. I guess the display cut-out helps the consumer to get the image of hair, too. I can’t find anything to change about these packages. Konkin has successfully designed pasta packaging that isn’t like the rest of the pasta packaging that already exists.
Earlier this week, I received Communication Arts’ Photography Annual. I’ve been tabbing the photographs that I found interesting, as well as some packaging examples and interviews. The next few posts will be about a few of them.
I came across the packaging for the English potato chips, London Flavours. The packaging was designed by the London-based design firm, Adaptable and the client was Food Store International. They wanted to target the Middle East with this packaging. Food Store International had been exporting food brands there for almost 25 years and felt that it was the right time to export their own brand. The packaging was the based on the concept of a London-themed brand. The designers at Adaptable decided to show the brand’s identity and tone through products, themselves, and their tastes.
What I found absolutely interesting was the fact that chip flavors’ were related to the London locations featured on the packaging. This was purposely done in order to breakaway from traditional chips packaging in London. I liked how one solid color differentiated each of the chip flavors, as well. I also liked how each of the images are treated in the same manner. The image sections on the packages also double as a focal point and breaks up the space. I approve of the serif typeface and how it makes the packaging look sophisticated. However, I wonder if there’s aspect of this new packaging that relates back to their Middle Eastern audience? If so, shouldn’t they feature that on the front? Overall, I really admire how this potato chips’ packaging, doesn’t actually look like potato chips’ packaging. That’s what sets it apart from others.
In the past month or so, I recently started to drink Juicy Juice again. I remember trying find the juice in the aisles of Giant Eagle, and when I finally found it, I was surprised. Juicy Juice had a new package and a new look now. It didn’t have the image of Arthur the Aardvark on the packaging anymore, nor did it have the blocky word mark on it either. After doing some research, I found out that Juicy Juice had a whole brand makeover, so to speak. In July 2014, Harvest Hill Beverage Company acquired the Juicy Juice brand, and approached the brand strategy and design consultancy, Product Ventures. Harvest Hill wanted them to redo the entire graphic elements of the packaging including the brand mark. They wanted the packaging to attract today’s millennial mom. According to the Product Ventures website, the packaging “embraces authenticity and goodness without losing flavorful appeal, delivering on the promise of “goodness made juicy.””
I’m not a mother, but I am an aunt to two young kids, and I would most definitely buy them Juicy Juice based on this new packaging. The packaging clearly shows the information I want to see first and foremost, instead having to look on the back of bottle/box. They’ve laid out the information on the front nicely and shows nice type hierarchy with the different font sizes. The images of the apples also are enticing and really makes you think they are juicy. I approve of the new brand mark of Juicy Juice as well. The typography of the word mark is no longer blocky, but seems to be a slab serif typeface. I personally think that slab serifs are sophisticated, and as a consumer, it looks appealing to the eye unlike the previous typeface. The brand mark is also very simple and I could easily see it working in different sizes. They’ve seem to have stuck with one type family on the packaging as well. I think that is a good thing their using one consistent typeface because the use of another typeface would’ve made the package too busy looking. The whole new look for Juicy Juice seems to be working well for them.
I came across this redesigned packaging for Proactiv skincare on Pinterest. This packaging was designed by a designer on Behance, Kate Carmack. She designed the new bottles to appeal a teenage audience by using a “more sophisticated look of a beauty product in place of its current ‘medical’ appearance.” I love the minimalist approach to these bottles, as well as the geometric numbers to show the 3-step process of the product. I’ll admit! It took a moment, for me, to realize that the three packages featured numbers on them. However, Carmack intentionally designed them to look like they were interlocking with each other. She did this to suggest the idea of each step being like a puzzle piece. I also like the color scheme of the entire packaging. The scheme is similar to the actual bottles’ colors, but these pops of color really attractive. I think this is smart packaging for a skin care product. It’s young and hip, and overall attractive. It sucks that Proactiv is using a “grown-up looking” package for their product when they want to attract teenagers. They should really consider changing their current packaging to something like Carmack designed in order to attract a younger crowd.
This morning I woke up with a craving for a veggie burger and a milkshake from Burgatory. So later this afternoon, I satisfied my hunger and was surprised to see Burgatory’s take-out packaging. In case you haven’t realized it yet, I ordered my burger and milkshake to go. The whole Burgatory brand was created and designed by Wall-to-Wall Studios (W|W). They’ve been around for almost 24 years now and have offices here in Pittsburgh and in Honolulu. For Burgatory, W|W decided to “[design] an integrated branded experience that elevated every touch point, including the food, to become the hottest restaurant in the region.” Burgatory’s designed elements include: the visual branding (logos and taglines); the on-site accessories (menus, gift cards, and take-out packaging); and the environmental details (signage and wayfinding) (Wall-to-Wall Studios). Wall-to-Wall Studios’ concept/idea for Burgatory was to be “wit[ty] and [have] just the right amount of irreverence to be remembered and craved.”
Now what I’ve always liked about Burgatory was their use of different typefaces that are just so in your face! They really have a fun time with typography! So today, when I saw the to-go packaging, I was amazed by how they enhanced a simple cardboard box and a paper bag. Both elements are mostly type heavy, but also integrate some imaging and simple icons. The typography and the icons are red and that really appeals to a person’s hunger and pops out on the box and bag. The take-out packages also feature witty headers and sayings using loud typefaces and really appeal to a person’s humorous side as well. Along with being loud and red, the typefaces have a grungy look and feel to them. This visual style works well with the textures of the box and paper bag and further enhances them. The type is also strategically placed out in different positions on the box. This makes them visually interesting and allows you to move your eyes around on the box and on the bag. On the whole, the packaging is rememberable and witty like the concept stated. It entices to an audience with their humor and the most importantly, their hunger.
Their take-out packaging is working very well for them. Like with all of their other design elements, Burgatory is appealing to people with an appetite and a humor. They leave the audience with wanting more to eat, and as result, wanting to come back time and time again. The brand itself communicates well as a burger and shake bar. In my opinion, Burgatory’s branding and identity really makes it “sinfully good.”
P.S. “Sinfully good” is one of their taglines if you didn’t know that 🙂
So I was doing some grocery shopping one day and I was walking around the frozen food aisles when I caught a glimpse of some food packaging that reminded me of the former Mexican restaurant, Chi-Chi’s (I miss their food!). I back tracked my steps and took out the box. The food packaging was for Padma Lakshmi’s Easy Exotic frozen food line. What caught my in the first place was the photograph of the rice dish (spicy black beans and rice). It wasn’t the signature of Lakshmi or even her face. It was the food itself and right in the left corner was second most important information I saw: vegan. So it was a no-brainer for me then to buy it!
When I examined the packaging again, I noticed several things. Straight off the bat, I understood that this package was to appeal to foodies anywhere in the US. However, I couldn’t really get whole exotic concept from the packaging. Yes, the bright blue color and the pattern seem exotic, but they really aren’t screaming exotic to me. As a result, it was hard for me to get the intended message. The whole box looked and felt homemade the wooden texture and the handwritten looking content. I felt that most well designed part of this box, aside from the front, was the back panel. The content and images were laid out nicely and allowed the white space to move my eyes across the box easily. I also noticed that the box used at least four different typefaces. The box had an old style serif typeface (dish name), a humanistic sans serif typeface (“Padma’s,” cooking instructions, and story), and I what believed were two casual script typefaces (“Exotic Easy” and handwritten looking content). There was a consistent placement and use of one of the casual scripts, the old style serif, and the humanistic sans serif on the back panel and the side panel with the cooking instructions on it. This subtlety displayed some text hierarchy on the side panel and back. In addition to that, I noted that two of the panels lacked some sort of design element. Overall, this box did some nice things with typography and layout design and it most definitely attracted a food-loving audience. However, I would change some things on this package to make it work with the concept more.
I would use more floral patterns and incorporate more splashes of color to enhance the package’s exotic concept. Right now it emphasizes too much on Lakshmi’s homemade experience and not enough on the exotic part of the food. I would also change the amount of typefaces this packaging used. Instead I would stick to one serif typeface for any of the headings and one sans serif typeface for any of the other written content. I would let the handwritten elements stay on the packing because it adds a personal element to the packaging. Finally, I would move the nutrition facts from the one side panel to the bottom panel with the barcode on it. I would then design this side panel to have a similar layout like the other one and have more written content on it. Or maybe, that entire panel could have Lakshmi’s little note on it, instead of on the back. This would allow the back have more white space and the note to make more breathing room. I think this redesigned package would appeal more to food lovers.
*Padma Lakshmi’s Easy Exotic food packaging is branded and designed by Brandmade Design Co. (http://brandmadeby.us)
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Photographs taken by Akaashmi Mishra; Feature image from Google Images
Akaashmi Mishra 