thumbs up

We're very pleased to see Peter Andre giving Percol Fusion the thumbs up!

have you seen this man?

Homepride’s Flour Grader Fred has been sighted on Facebook and Twitter recently… doing the rounds promoting both the new Homepride Flour packs (designed by yours truly)and the Wallace & Gromit Children’s Foundation’s BIGBake fundraising event (of which Homepride Flour is a supporter).

after and before

whip it!

And the next project that has recently come to fruition is... Orley Whip. Although the name might not be familiar, it's an iconic cream/dessert topping brand in its South African homeland. The two-strong range has been modernised and brought bang up to date, initiated by a move from a messy individual sachet format to a much more convenient pouring bottle.

Orley has also made a foray into the foodservice market, with the use of an on pack endorsement from Kerrymaid. Cream of the crop eh?!

arabian delights

Apologies for the radio silence over the summer. But, we've been hard at work on lots of projects that are now coming to fruition.

First up is Bis*Bas, a new range of very delicious Middle Eastern sauces. They can be used in any number of ways, as cooking sauces, dips, relishes, straight from the jar on a spoon...

They're made by the lovely sisters-in-law Muna and Muna (cook and entrepreneur respectively), inspired by authentic recipes that have passed down through generations. We heartily recommend that you look out for the distinctive jars, they're a great way to pep up any meal. Yum!

splashing out

We recently designed the promotional graphics for A Bigger Splash - an event held in London by the Swedish Chamber of Commerce UK (SCC).

The event was organised by the Young Professionals at SCC and took the format of a question and answer forum. For me, the common theme was the singular passion and drive each of entrepreneurs possessed, and their ability to spring back from all the knock backs and upsets they experienced. This emphasised the fact that there is no short cut to being successful as an entrepreneur (contrary to the impression given on reality TV).

The keynote speakers came from a wide spectrum of business activity - from selling clothes and homewares to a global market (http://www.lexingtoncompany.com/) through to developing an app for streaming live video from a smart phone (http://bambuser.com/).

splash screen

Watch out for the new - and first ever - Brecon Carreg water TV ad, coming to a small screen near you (as reported in The Grocer this week): 

five golden rules in foodservice branding and packaging

Traditionally, brand designers have shied away from working with foodservice brands because there hasn't been the scope to do anything creative.

This isn’t helped by foodservice brand owners that pay little attention to their packs’ branding and design. They tend to want to keep their brands nice and functional. And you just need to look at well known, great quality products from the likes of Pritchitts, Bladen and Meadowland in the dairy category to appreciate the power of function.

This is quite understandable, as it’s the product quality that is of the utmost importance. For many products, if it came in a white bag or bottle with the product name printed on the front in Arial, professional chefs would still choose the tried and tested, no matter what the packaging looked like. Quite right too if the product does the job.

But the influence of brands in foodservice IS changing. Of course, many household brands have been part of the foodservice landscape for a long while. Ambrosia, Knorr, Heinz and McCain are examples of brands that cross the divides of both retail and foodservice. But for those brands that put themselves firmly in foodservice, there’s a sense that a more functional approach to branding is a more acceptable one.

But, as I said, the influence of brands is changing. There are lots more variables now. There’s price - naturally. But taste, performance and availability are also hugely important too. And, of course, there are more good quality products to choose from, which means the tried and trusted ones are not perhaps the automatic choices they once were.

Our recent work with Kerrymaid and its range of dairy ingredients made us question a few of the givens. According to research by the respected Cambridge Direction Group, Kerrymaid was an ‘invisible brand’. It had low impact, little recall and often was mistaken for Kerrygold. Yet the quality and performance of its products were second to none.

Having been tasked to develop the Kerrymaid branding, we questioned just how functional the brand should be on pack and across it marketing communications. It was important that the brand should get noticed, have some appeal yet could present itself as a serious player in foodservice.

Give the brand some emotional appeal, we said. Give it some distinctiveness. Give it some branding! But be clear about each product’s benefits and how it will perform. Cambridge Direction undertook some research and after an anxious wait came back with a green light from professional caterers to develop it and apply to packaging, its trade press advertising and sales collateral.

So what have we learned? Well, I see it as five golden rules to ensure that the right balance is struck between having brand appeal and maintaining that professional credibility in foodservice – whatever the category:

 

The new Kerrymaid range:

brand new brecon

We've recently redesigned the packaging for our bottled water client Brecon Carreg. The updated design takes inspiration from the small team that produce the water in the foothills of the Brecon Beacons - the heart of Wales. Nik came into the studio earlier this week with a proud grin, having unexpectedly spotted the multipacks in store (see below)!

french letters

I stumbled across this intriguing video which matches two of my favourite things - music and 1950s 'throwaway' lettering styles [says Peter]. The three piece band come from Marseille and are called Husbands. The promo video is by Cauboyz (pronounced Cowboys), also from France, who say:
"we are French/from Nancy
we are a photographer
and a graphic designer
and we like doing music videos"

I love their work:

Husbands - "Dream" from Cauboyz on Vimeo.

What's even more fascinating is the "how we did this video". How analogue and 'old skool' can you get?

Making Of / Husbands - "Dream" from Cauboyz on Vimeo.

swedish link

We've recently been doing some work with the Swedish Chamber of Commerce for the UK, publicising the events they run (for example their upcoming seminar Generation Zero: The Future of Youth Unemployment).

new recruit

Today we've had a new freelancer in on trial - a highly skilled and super stylish Maltipoo called Teddy! No doubt we'll be welcoming him back soon.