Building a brand from strategy to shelf
Great packaging starts long before the design reaches the pack. It begins with understanding the brand, the consumer, the competitive landscape and, most importantly, what will make someone choose one product over another.
For this project we worked closely with our client on the Isle of Man to develop a complete new brand approach – from positioning and brand strategy through to visual identity, packaging design and the roll-out across the wider product range.
The challenge was to create something distinctive and contemporary while retaining the provenance, quality and personality behind the products.
Brand strategy with commercial purpose
Our approach to brand strategy is always rooted in the real world. A brand has to look great, but it also has to work hard commercially.
We considered how the range would compete at shelf, how individual products would work together as a family and how the identity could remain recognisable as the range developed.
Every element – typography, colour, imagery, illustration, messaging and pack architecture – was considered as part of one coherent brand system.
The result is an identity designed not simply for one product, but to provide a strong platform for future growth.
Packaging designed for the shelf
Food packaging has only a few seconds to attract attention and communicate why a product deserves to be picked up.
That means creating a clear hierarchy of information while building appetite appeal, recognition and trust.
For this range we developed a packaging language that balances provenance and personality with a cleaner, more contemporary presentation. Individual products have their own character while remaining unmistakably part of the same family.
It is a system that can work across different formats and product categories without losing the strength of the master brand.
From creative concept to production
Successful packaging design also has to survive the transition from a great-looking concept to thousands of finished packs.
Our involvement extended throughout the process, developing the creative direction, refining the packaging system and preparing the brand for implementation across the range.
With an initial packaging order of more than 500,000 pieces, this was brand strategy and creative design intended to work at genuine commercial scale.
More than making packaging look different
A packaging redesign is an opportunity to reconsider how a brand presents itself to the world.
What should consumers notice first? What makes the product different? What should they remember? How can provenance become an advantage rather than simply another piece of information on the pack?
These are the questions that inform our creative work.
We combine brand strategy, creative thinking and packaging design to create brands that are distinctive, relevant and commercially effective – whether we're repositioning an established product range or helping build something completely new.
Creating brands people want to pick up
Ultimately, packaging has a very simple job: it has to help sell the product.
Our aim is to create packaging that gets noticed, communicates quickly and gives consumers a reason to choose the brand.
Beautiful design matters. But beautiful design that builds recognition, creates preference and adds to sales matters considerably more.
The client stated " everything looks fantastic - we are quite emotional - you did a great job for us"