As the end of 2013 looms, The Drum spoke with design agencies to ask them about their favourite pieces of packaging they've seen in the marketplace this year.
Walkers Tiger Nuts: Chosen by John Ramskill, creative director London & founding partner, BrandOpus
The very fact that this great piece of purist graphic design got through is fantastic. It’s a clever idea, and those are the ones that are usually killed off.Kudos goes to the client who agreed to this and allowed the consumer to be challenged. A lesser client might have been worried about legibility, but in reality this idea is all the more memorable for it.
Nivea redesign: Chosen by Stuart Chapman, associate director, The Big Picture
The Nivea redesign by fuseproject/Yves Béhar shows that sometimes the best design isn’t about embellishing, it’s about simplifying something down to the visual essence of the brand. The Nivea redesign is a great example of that.
Heineken Ignite: Chosen by Andy Johnson, business unit director, Sun Branding Creative
This year Heineken put innovation at the top of its agenda and experimented with its packaging too. The lager brand lit up the club scene with its interactive bottle design that uses micro sensors and wireless technology, to interact with drinkers. The LED lights react when people clink bottles and can be synchronized to music as well.
VersaFlow: Chosen by John Ramskill, creative director London & founding partner, BrandOpus
It’s not graphic, but this is great packaging. It’s refreshing to seeing a designer taking the time to making something as humble as the simple glass jar more functional. After all, better pack function is beneficial to the brand too.
Marks & Spencer: Chosen by Andy Johnson, business unit director, Sun Branding Creative
This summer M&S launched a stunning food range under ‘the Great British Summer’ banner. The Ruby & Lime Quencher salad stood out especially, not only for its innovative offer of a fresh fruit salad with lime jelly seashells, but also in the moulded pack, which came in the shape of a castle. This gave the product life after use for kids on the beach and certainly grabbed the attention of our three children who were literally pulling them off the shelves.
Lurpak Slow Churned Butter: Chosen by John Ramskill, creative director London & founding partner, BrandOpus
I can’t believe that it’s taken so long for a BSM brand to create a butter dish, let alone one as simple and subtly branded as this. It feels like Lurpak is the brand to do this, and convert die-hard spreadable consumers like me to trade up for the ‘real thing’. I particularly like the way the agency have leveraged the core equities of the brand, such as the distinctive silver colour used so simply and beautifully on pack.
Tesco Finest: Chosen by Stuart Chapman, associate director, The Big Picture & Andy Johnson, business unit director, Sun Branding
Stuart Chapman, associate director, The Big Picture: A mammoth undertaking which has been executed with care, elegance and finesse.Andy Johnson, business unit director, Sun Branding Creative: Tesco relaunched its finest* range this September, overhauling 1,500 products across the major food and drink categories. The new designs incorporate both illustration and photography and the use of foil blocking on some of the packs is particularly effective, creating shelf ‘shimmer’ to bring out the premium quality of the own label
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