dough balls

Our third entry for the crazy world cup packaging competition - as seen by Lawrence - really is a case of hopping on the bandwagon. But might just be worth it if only for the bargain promotional price.

ceci n'est pas un football

Lawrence spotted these lettuces in his local Co-op. Apparently he couldn't resist giving one a kick about, at which point it fell to pieces and he was escorted off the premises by the Store Manager. But he did manage to get a photo before the carnage!

crazy world cup competition

With the World Cup around the corner, all manner of weird and wonderful visual tricks, linguistic puns and international flavours are being launched by manufacturers in a desperate attempt to cash in.

We're holding a wonderland World Cup competition to find the best (and worst) examples of World Cup-themed products and packaging around. So if anyone reading comes across a winner, please do send in pictures to info@wonderlandwpa.com.

Kicking things off (so to speak) are these patriotic rolls that Nik found in M&S...

from Paris with love

Our senior designer Jess is taking on a sort of capital city tour this year - starting with New York in February, via Paris the weekend before last, and ending up in Berlin next weekend! Glamorous eh? She's written about her trip to Paris for the Carnaby Brown blog. Read the full account here.

the best taste under the sun

Last year we stumbled across Southern Alps at a health food shop while replenishing our muesli supplies for the Colourmakers House kitchen. We were immediately taken with this growing Kent-based company that started life in 2001 as homemade fruit snacks and muesli for entrepreneur Lotte Garner's family. Studio consensus was that it was the best-tasting granola we'd eaten in a long time - not to mention its ethical and sustainability credentials. But we also thought that the brand's identity and packaging wasn't living up to all this.

So we got in touch with Lotte and it turned out that retailers and customers were thinking the same thing. People also found the large number of muesli and granola variants really confusing (bit of a problem for a brand hoping to grow).

Fast-forward six months and the newly designed and streamlined muesli and granola range is shipping to retailers this week, along with a new positioning, tag line, brand identity, website, sales presenters and newsletters.

So how did we get here? Our starting point was simple - Southern Alps' unique Slow Dried Fruit process. They use the very best fresh fruit, dried with warm air and nothing else to retain maximum flavour, nutrition and goodness. Sugar and preservatives are never used, and the resulting fruit really does have the best taste under the sun!

We also took inspiration for the brand's personality from Lotte herself. She's one of the most unforgettably quirky, seriously intelligent and unapologetically passionate people we've come across. And because this is a brand packed with meaning and provenance, we had to tell some of its great stories, so the back of pack features little anecdotes. Take the Slow-Dried Pineapple for instance, which is produced by farming groups in Southern Uganda. The pineapple is grown in naturally fertile soils, picked when fully ripe and then dried immediately to capture its wonderful natural sweetness. The solar drying method used minimises the impact on the environment and by drying the pineapple in Uganda, just 1kg of dried pineapple is shipped for every 15kg of fresh pineapple harvested, reducing the environmental impact of its transportation.

Now for the burning question: is the new design working? Well, there's been a phenomenal response from the trade - every single retailer has been very positive about the new look and the brand has got listings in Ireland for the first time. We'll keep you posted on how the story develops, and will share our work on the rest of the Southern Alps range as and when it happens.

things to do in london when...

We've just put together a guide to some of our favourite things to do and places to see in London, for a Swedish client who is visiting the city. Click here to view or download a copy (download recommended for a better quality viewing experience).

battle of the sexes

In our modern, getting-close-to-equality world, are the lines between products for women and products or men becoming blurred? And, if that is the case, should we insist on shakily redrawing them?

While there are - of course - products that really are distinct to a particular sex (think Tampax and King of Shaves), many are just positioned one way or the other, through packaging, marketing or both. We've been looking at the roles of each of these, and have picked out some examples that might help us cross what can be a bit of a minefield.

gorgeous pink

You'd think that by now, we'd have all grasped that turning a product pink, lowering its calorie content and calling it gorgeous won't give it automatic appeal to women, but is likely to patronise and alienate many of them. However, the recent launch of Chicago Town's Gorgeous Pizza, and the very existence of pink power tools, goes to show that the message hasn't got through. Yes, there's a time and a place for pink, but that's not always and everywhere. For products that have been mindfully designed for - and marketed to - women, taking their lifestyles into consideration, look at HP's new Tord Boontje-designed laptop (OK it's floral, but no pink in sight and, being limited edition, it has that aspirational factor. Or car manufacturers like Ford who've made curvy, simple interiors that speak to women's sense of form whilst retaining all function.

extreme sport

Similarly, it seems to be an accepted wisdom that if you whack 'Extreme' or 'Sport' on a product, men will be instantly drawn to its masculine vibe. This is particularly rampant in the personal care category - where there's still a need for some macho reassurance - and has swiftly become something of a cliché (one that Dove has moved away from with the new Men+Care range). Also choosing to bypass that self-conscious machismo, look at how Pot Noodle, Yorkie and McCoy's have stamped their successful 'men only' positionings with their wholeheartedly masculine - yet humorous - campaigns.

for him. for her. for them.

Sometimes it's right to target one gender or the other, but at other times it's just the easy way out, and it can backfire (e.g. Aero's struggles to win back the male consumers they alienated a couple of years ago with their very female-targeted advertising campaign).

Bearing in mind the fact that women are more likely to buy 'male' products than men are to buy anything 'female', it makes sense to keep the product unisex, the packaging lightly masculine, and the promotion appealing all round. OK it's simplistic, but take that classic beer companies' conundrum - a successful 'women's beer'. Could they open up their existing products more to women just by tweaking their exclusive-to-men advertising campaigns? Speculation aside, what it comes down to is that it's no good deciding on gender-based design/marketing for the sake of it. As ever, those involved should first and foremost focus on the actual consumer - be it male or female. Stay in touch with your consumers and their needs, and the rest will follow.

We've talked the gender talk, but can we walk the walk (so to speak)? We'd like to share a couple of our own projects and explain how we've tackled the issues.

carnaby brown

Launching in the UK in March, Carnaby Brown is a new lightly sparkling fruit wine that is - resolutely - for girls. This is a case where it's the product (original and rosé variants, 5.5% abv) that decides the positioning, but we haven't gone near the aforementioned 'gorgeous pink' look. Our design does justice to the product - elegant and stylish - and avoids being overly girly. We like to think that a man wouldn't feel embarrassed picking up a bottle of Carnaby for his girlfriend!

jinxWe've talked about Jinx before, but it's really worth another look in this context. Jinx launched last year as a new Swedish RTD made with real fruit. Whereas in the UK (male orientated brand WKD excepted) these drinks are generally produced with women in mind, in Sweden both men and women enjoy them. So our designs maintain a fruity party spirit while successfully appealing to both sexes- a notoriously tricky feat in the alcohol category.

löfbergs lila

In many minds, there are foods and drinks that have a natural gender-bias (so beer/crisps are for men and chocolate/wine are for women). But some products completely transcend gender, and coffee is one of those. Coffee is a unifier - with its consumers often tending towards the zealous. We kept that in mind when designing these new packs, which focus on the coffee experience with designs that are inclusive to all coffee lovers whether male or female.