closed for maintenance

Today was the last day of Antony Gormley's One & Other on the fourth plinth in Trafalgar Square. So, a fitting - if tardy - time to show off our very own art installation. Our artwork manager Robin Munden had his one hour of fame on the plinth back in August, and we all went along to support him. Here he is in character as a builder - inspired!

stockholm calling

Sweden is well known for its great design and sense of aesthetic. We’re lucky to be regular visitors, working with Spendrups, Löfbergs Lila and Brämhults to name but three. When we’re Stockholm bound, we always try and make time to have a nose about to see what’s new, what catches our eye and what inspires us. Here are some of our favourite finds, showcasing the Swedish love of colour, type, illustration and above all, simplicity, alongside some of our own work (click for larger images)…

1 & 11 Saltå Kvarn; an organic food brand with a wonderful colour palette and naïve illustration style; 2 Renée Voltaire, another organic brand, with great quirky typography. The brand has just launched a range of feminine care products (3); 4 more simple and eye-catching illustration on these ricecakes from Friggs; 5 we designed these cute little coffees for Löfbergs Lila this year.

6 this tray sums up Swedish design for us, found in the Design Torget shop (a mecca for all things Scandinavian) at Arlanda airport; 7 ‘tea-chic’ by Friggs with more crazy but beautiful type; 8 more of our work for Löfbergs Lila; these emotional espresso packs were produced in 2006; 9 meet Pee (or‘Kiss’ in Swedish), part of a pair of brilliant toys to help young kids with toilet training; 10 we spotted these simple, bright and engaging own-label packs in ICA; 12 we designed Sweden’s no.1 water brand, Loka; and Gravendal (13), a cider with street-cred for brewers Spendrups

hello and welcome

Our new girl in the office this month is Anna Brolin, who has joined us from Design Bridge as International Client Director. Back from her summer holidays in Sweden, Anna will now be taking responsibility for developing our presence in Scandinavia, where our current clients include Löfbergs Lila, Kobbs Tea, Spendrups and Brämhults.

the genuine article

Are consumers losing trust in the authenticity of packaging claims?

Desire for authenticity has been one of the key drivers behind design aesthetics for the last few years. Authenticity in a world of superficial branding promised a richer, more meaningful and responsible choice of product. Packaging designs, in particular, have emphasised such aspects as heritage, ethics and provenance or any combination of these in an attempt to promote the authentic stories behind their brands - sadly, in a rather predictable way.

But claims of organic and heritage originals have now lost some of their previous appeal as consumers have grown more savvy about the truth and value behind them. Put simply, they don't always reflect the point of a brand anyway! Brands that have trodden this path look bland at best and contrived at worst - just so that they can fit with a consumer trend - and in so doing raise huge questions of credibility.

Our recently launched redesign of Brecon Carreg bottled water wanted to find a refreshing, relevant way of communicating the brand's Welsh provenance of outdoor refreshment. The pack shape and design are focussed on the unique geography of the Brecon landscape whilst bright, impactful graphics move away from the dull greens and blues among illustrated mountains so characteristic of bottled waters.

Standard, authentic pack shapes, colours and stories are beginning to lighten up and reflect a desire, particularly among younger consumers, for fun and escapism. Consider Jinx. An exciting new brand just launching into the Swedish alcopop market, Jinx does something very different from the rest of the category: it contains raw organic fruit juices. But instead of drawing inspiration from the organic market or emphasising its natural juice credentials, our designs picked up on the pleasures of its taste and sociability. Worthy organic, natural hues gave way to pure energy and enjoyment - a perfect fit with the core audience and a direct reflection of their clubbing habitat. It's a brand confident enough in its authenticity to focus on raw pleasure.

For younger markets, authenticity and honesty are the norm, but synthetic and GM foods aren't necessarily seen as scary or dangerous either. If brands tell the right story in a modern way and offer both fun and escapism, they don't need to see authenticity as the Holy Grail - although it might be a genuine claim. The question we should be asking is not just how to make brand experiences more authentic, but how to make them more interesting and enjoyable.

bp birthday

BP is an amazing 100 years old this year, and to celebrate this momentous birthday the company published a commemorative volume last month. The book - written/edited by BP's Centenary Project team and designed/produced by us - tells BP's unique company history using images from a vast archive of over 259,000 photos and ephemera.

According to our director Peter Walker, "at times it felt like we were producing a storyboard for a feature documentary. The hardest part was editing down a selection from so many captivating images." The book has multinational distribution through BP's global organisation.

inspired

The theme for May's Final Friday get together last week was inspiration. We all shared something/someone we find inspiring. The results were pretty diverse, some more obvious than others (Wallpaper* is self-explanatory, but Moonwalker?!?). Here's a run down, with links for more information below..

Studio aka You Can Find Inspiration In Everything, by Paul Smith
Up The Boo Aye, Shooting Pookakies, by Mike Harding Wallpaper*
Shai Agassi in Wired Magazine Vogue Dan Eldon
Design*Sponge Time Out London

the low down

A couple of weeks ago, Ireland's second largest cheese brand, the lower fat Kerry LowLow, made its first foray into the UK market, with packaging designed by use here at wonderlandWPA.

Our MD Lawrence explains the challenge thus, "Kerry LowLow cheese performs brilliantly in terms of taste and meltability for a lower fat cheese. However, the low fat cheese sector doesn't exactly have a great reputation when it comes to delivering on natural cheese taste. As a brand name, Kerry LowLow certainly does the job of putting the consumer in the lower fat zone, so the packaging has to work incredibly hard to exude its genuine great taste and naturalness.

"At last the category will have a genuine brand whose core proposition is about lower fat with all the taste of a real cheddar, which consumers can feel good about. The packaging has set out to position itself in this single minded way."

design with meaning

The topic for this month's Final Friday (an informal company get together on the last Friday of each month) was "design with meaning". This philosophy is at the centre of all our work, and as a way of exploring it we each brought in an example of a company or brand that we personally felt embodied design with/without meaning and shared it with everyone else. Here's a run down of who chose what and why (as a generally positive bunch, most or our examples are "with meaning" apart from the last two shown below)...

party spirit

We have been working on the branding and packaging for Swedish family-owned brewery Spendrups' latest launch into the RTD (ready-to-drink) market, JINX. It is the first RTD made with real fruit juice to be launched in Scandinavia, offering a more natural and honest fruit-flavoured alcoholic drink.

Our Account Director Julia says, "In Sweden RTDs are drunk by men and women alike, and achieving the balance of natural fruit and party cues as well as creating a design with appeal to both sexes were the key challenges."

The label demonstrates a "perfect blend of fashion, fruit and party, whilst offering the widely recognized and assuring cues of spirits brands".

We also enlisted everyone's help in coming up with a suitable name, with the ultimate winner, JINX, alluding to the mystery and surprise of a night out partying with friends!

value vs. good value

Shrinking consumer bank balances are driving a new value aesthetic across every retailer

As Tesco, Boots and other high street FMCG retailers in the UK & Ireland try to take on Lidl and Aldi, ultra-value product lines are appearing at even lower prices than the standard house brand versions. Standardised packaging, un-inventive primary colours and pound store prices are luring consumers hungry for cheaper options and exploring new territory in the value market.

beans means value which would you choose?

But even in these tough times, do consumers really just want the cheapest products they can find? And if this is the case, are they buying own-brand simply because it's the cheapest option? Where does design come in? Surely consumers can still see and touch - they are not solely motivated by their wallets as a means to decide what branded - or non-branded - products to buy. Brands spent the last decade educating consumers in the visual codes of premium, organic, authentic and health; surely consumers haven't forgotten...?

During the good times, the bigger brands encountered very little threat. Pack updates were often gratuitous rather than incisive. During recessionary times, brands are put under the spotlight. Those that ignore the issues facing their consumer base risk alienating them. If people feel that the big brands are indifferent to their situation and don't do anything to stand out and be different, they will inevitably consider cheaper alternatives.

And why not? If brands can't be bothered to define what makes them different and be able to say it - clearly and succinctly - then value brands become fair play. And those brands that can't be bothered and then focus on price to hide their shortcomings risk losing their consumer base for good.

In recessionary times, showing concern about price and acting responsibly is a value in itself. But lazy discounting is not enough. Brands also need to polish their foundations, be confident about their proposition and be single-minded about communicating it! The new recession brief is to find a meaningful link between price and the main benefit of your brand - be it functional or emotional.

EasiSingles gave consumers a meaningful link, and with it enough reason to buy this brand over own-label equivalents or its big-brand competitors who appear to have given up the ghost! EasiSingles is an Irish brand of individually wrapped slices of cheese perfect for melting over toasties and burgers, and part of a relatively static category.

With a pricepoint slightly higher than own-brand value, we helped take EasiSingles from being a rather nondescript functional player with a lack-lustre message to one which embraced its single-minded, good-value benefit: meltability of the highest order.

Our 'meltable' pack design helped take EasiSingles from a declining brand losing 12% of sales year on year to a positive sales uplift of over 30%. And this was achieved initially without advertising. In tough times, without the luxury of big advertising budgets, packaging and branding have to work even harder. More bang for your buck, or more melt for your cheese in the case of EasiSingles.

Good brand design means you can demonstrate good value, rather than just cheapest value, and in the process establish long-lasting emotional loyalties to new and existing consumers.

legally branded

In February we created an identity for the new Government legal regulator LSB, having picked up the brief last October. We created an authoritative marque, respectful of legal traditions whilst giving LSB a modern and distinctive edge.

Designer Catherine Barnett, who also designed the identity of the UK communications regulator Ofcom, explained, "Regulation plays an important part in our lives, meaning these organisations need an approachable and public face. Brand identity is vital to how regulators communicate successfully with consumers, businesses and stakeholders."

all change!

We welcomed Amy Smith at the start of April as our new Account Manager. She'll be working closely with Julia. As Amy S joins, trusty Amy M is leaving us - thankfully only temporarily though, as she's off on maternity leave. Good luck Amy and see you at Christmas! Whilst Amy M is away, Anna Chipperfield (who was studio manager at JKR) will be stepping in to hold the fort. So, some new faces, some with the same name as the 'old' faces. This could get confusing...

pure soya

The Pure brand has made an interesting strategic change to capitalize upon the benefits and growing popularity of soya. The dairy free spread has always had a soya variant in its range. But new packaging presents the brand as a soya brand and aims to leverage the soya proposition in spreads and cheese slices. Whatever next?

irish biscuits

Our new packaging design for Jacob's creams in Ireland has just hit the shelves. People had forgotten just how special creams biscuits are. So we ensured the biscuits were given iconic status to make consumers stop, look and remember just how much they fancied a cream biscuit with a nice cuppa...

denny delicious

Ireland's favourite chilled meats brand has launched a range of subtly flavoured sausages. And they really are very good sausages. So, we felt they needed a name to describe how they tasted. That's the Delicious part. The food shots were captured by Diana Miller to give some real sizzle and taste.

a pack design that really looks good enough to eat!