The gift card holder was developed out of the need to make gift-card-giving more presentable. The design displays the card in a swift pop up motion, creating a delightful experience. It features a 2-piece construction as well as a lock mechanism that keeps the card shut.
This packaging was created for Domaine des 15 lots, a Quebec based artisanal maple syrup brand. They approached us to conceive the packaging for their new collection of three different maple syrups: amber, light and medium .
In their brief, the client challenged us to bundle the three 250ml bottles without using any type of glue. In order to respect their request we created a custom die-line which when assembled holds together the three bottles while creating a handle for convenient transportation. The design also incorporates delicate die-cut maple trees with a spile and bucket referencing where and how the syrup is collected.
For Venatrix Framboise, Driftwood Brewery’s new addition to their Bird of Prey series of sour beers, we decided to embody the cute-aggressive character of a raspberry in a quirky illustration of a screech owl, her expression equal parts menacing and irresistible. The light-blue of her narrowing eyes glare through finely-rendered red-orange feathers. We chose a name that means “huntress," and gave her a voice in the form of a playful poem, ripe with neologisms in little berry-bursts.
Am the hunt. Under prickle-thickets, grasping raspberry bushels,
peck-picking pucker-sweet fruitlets by the bush-full. Am hunting.
Unripe, ripe, over. All a-screech with red words in the bird-light,
red-light of me. Then thornless in the after-now of no-hunt, plump
and plume, but am huntress, always-ever. Am Venatrix.
MTL Grooming is a company which provides beard grooming kits that contain beard oil and balm. They use natural and high-quality ingredients. When caring for a beard it is important for men to use the correct quantity of beard oil this is why the oil is packaged in pills that must be popped to apply the product onto their beards, this ensures the perfect amount of product.The packaging is designed using the different stages of beard growth: Grow this is when you have decided to grow a beard, Growing this is the stage where you are thinking of quitting and Grown this stage you have a full grown beard and plan on keeping it for as long as possible. The lines on the packaging represent hair growth they get longer and thicker as it reaches grown.
Raincoast Global is a new line of the Raincoast Trading family. A brand was created to feature the "Pole & Line" fishing technique that this sustainable tuna uses. Bright blue was used to represent the waters of Maldives where the tuna is caught. The illustration of the fishermen catching the tuna offers a distinctively different look amongst other canned seafood brands and helps reinforce the fishing technique. The design is printed directly on the cans, eliminating the paper label and allowing the bottom of the can to be a feature area.
Naturoney, the nature of honey
Les Ruchers Promiel tasked lg2 to redo the brand identity and packaging as well as the online experience for its Naturoney brand. The mandate was to showcase the brand’s three product lines (classic honeys, tasting honeys [regular and organic] and apitherapy) with an eye to supporting the company’s expanding business.
For Coast Mountain, a new brewery in Whistler, BC looking to celebrate the great outdoors, we were tasked with creating a brand that feels bold, adventurous, and dynamic. We decided to design a brand mark using hand-drawn letterforms with thick, textural strokes, rising to a rocky peak with the central “A.
Partnering up with Michelle Zhen, this is identity and packaging created for conceptual chocolate brand Bits. A selection of chocolate bars was developed and designed to showcase the flavors of different cultures around the world, each with an interesting approach leaving the chocolate & its own flavor in focus. It primarily targets younger audiences due to the packaging style and the concept behind it. However, they would also attract consumers of all ages who are interested in any of the flavors/countries and wishes to provide the chocolate as a gift.
The concept of the packaging is to introduce a fun, exclusive, and rich (gift style) chocolate line that represents different locations around the world. The goal is to incorporate parts of different cultures into the chocolate and to advertise the brand as one that is playful and also has quality standard chocolate for general consumers as well as gifters and travelers.
In true holiday spirit, our team of gelatieres and designers have made a Winter Collection for 2016 that will surely create a memorable experience for our fans. Introducing the 4 offerings of the Fiasco 2016 Winter Collection: Classic Eggnog, creating our house-made nog and organic nutmeg truly makes for a unique and authentic flavour for the holiday season; Chocolate Peppermint, rich dark cocoa layered with fresh mint oil, come together for pure indulgence; Sticky Toffee Pudding, morsels of freshly baked spiced cake blended into our rich cream base, then drizzled with our house-made caramel; and Cranberry Pear Sorbetto, perfectly tart cranberries woven together with sweet poached pears make this the perfect and refreshing dairy free option this season.
With the growth of our brand, the recognition and trust of Fiasco is paramount. The creative process on both flavour and packaging challenged us to create a design for our Winter Collection that encompasses our original packaging while adding a unique twist that could become a collectible item for our fans.
Utilizing our traditional fonts, the 11 degree Fiasco flag, and brand colours, we are enthusiastic that the elements people have come to love translate across the brand as we continue to enrich people’s lives. The 2016 winter animals featured on the packaging have come from our favourite part of being Canadian - The Great Outdoors. These subtle features and warm palate allows our re-usable jars to become a one-of-a-kind collectible.
As with every collection, we draw on our experiences and look to celebrate the feelings associated with it. This year’s winter collection tagline - “There’s magic in the air”.
And in line with always looking to the future, the design of our winter collection is also meant to seamlessly flow with this year’s campaign: #FiascoAtHome. The aim of this campaign is to showcase how much happiness we bring into people’s lives, in their most intimate moments, and how giving and sharing are at the core of our business.
Lastly, after much request we decided to re-release our Drinking Chocolate & ‘Mallows. The classic milk carton designed package is a perfect gift to share with your loved ones in the warmth of your own home - or wherever you decide to spend your holidays.
For Whitetooth Brewing, named after the local historic ski resort in Golden, BC, we decided to create a logo inspired by outdoor adventure gear and Swiss Style design. The brandmark, composed with the monogram “W” as part of an abstract set of teeth, also yields an iconic “black diamond” in its negative space.
Referencing classic National Parks posters and outdoor adventure photography, we developed a hybrid label system with a minimum of design container elements, relying on the strength of the illustration style and composition for high brand recognition amongst individual labels, each designed to flavour.
Cohesion within the illustrations was achieved with the use of dynamic figures at medium distance with semi-obscured faces, allowing the viewer to place themselves right up in the action.
Bold colour combinations and striking outdoor scenes — imbued with WPA poster-esque expanses of snow, water, sky, dirt and cliffs — give the prospective drinker an idea of each brew’s palate and personality.
Beloved landmarks and a variety of seasons and terrains were represented in the illustrations to express the abundance found in Golden and its surrounds, connecting Whitetooth beer drinkers (whether they be locals or visitors from far-flung places) with the heady adrenaline rush and sense of awe felt by those who engage in extreme sports in the vast Canadian wilderness.
Caribou Creative has created the branding and packaging design for Kis•met Essentials, a company based out of Vancouver, British Columbia that focuses on bringing organic, non-GMO and ethically sourced products to the market.
Caribou was hired to create a brand that aligned with their guiding principles of simple, clean and natural health products. This started with a minimal logo design that could reflect their mantra while staying relevant over time. To differentiate themselves in the market, we used gold foil accents to stand out on product shelves and loads of whitespace.
“Erin and Paul are two young, savvy start-up millennials with big goals and an unwavering drive. I am excited by their enthusiasm, complete understanding of the significant role branding plays and importance of investing into packaging that stands out on shelves. Kis•met Essentials has hit the ground running and is already launching new products into the market which I’m thrilled to be a part of.” -Laura Prpich, Designer.
Kis•met Essentials is sold in stores and online worldwide.
For our rebrand of Driftwood Brewery’s Clodhopper, a Belgian-style Dubbel with barley grown and malted locally by artisan maltster Mike Doehnel, we decided on a typographic approach with strong familial resemblance to Pilsner Doehnel and Blackstone Porter.
Cannabis will be a "new" product on the market in Canada because of its future legalization. We had to think new ways to package and distribute the product either to affect its quality/freshness or the perception of the people on this product.
The general concept is based on the association with firecrackers (Pétard), which is a direct reference to the joint. The branding is inspired by the nostalgia of the firecrackers universe during the 50's to the 70's. The joints are associated with the simple firecrackers, the cannabis buds are associated with the cherry bomb and the rolling paper is associated with the paper roll caps.
Innovation is embedded in the DNA of Farnham Ale & Lager and its brew. The microbrewery created a unique line of beers, which are today enjoyed throughout Quebec and as far south as the U.S.A. Now it has produced a 6% alc./vol. malted beverage with a dominant citrusy taste. Born this summer, the latest addition is available four seasons a year.
Caribou Creative has created the branding and packaging design for Smak Dab Gourmet Mustard, an award winning, small batch, locally driven company from Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada.
Caribou was tasked with creating a brand that could convey the contrasting textures and flavours of the hand crafted gourmet mustards Red Seal Chef Carly Minish creates. This started with a logo design as bold as their taste, and that could stand out on product shelves and generate interest with it’s clever naming. Clear labelling and minimal design allows the mustards to speak for themselves by showcasing the many colours, flavours and varieties Smak Dab offers.
“Carly got in touch with me through social media and I instantly felt the drive and connection between her love of mustard and being a young successful entrepreneur. In the short while that the new design has been on the shelves, Smak Dab has received tremendous feedback, a true testament of hard work and seeing value in good design” - Laura Prpich, Designer
Smak Dab is sold in stores and online across Canada.
Husband and wife team Nick & Elena believe in creating safe, clean burning candles with sustainably grown and harvested ingredients. After struggling to find candles on the market that were made from anything other than soy and paraffin, they soon got to work and Lux et Terra was born. All candles are poured by hand and made in small batches in their Fernwood kitchen home on Vancouver Island.
I created a clean, minimal and refined brand that mimicked their vision. Crisp white labels with a touch of gold foil and slate grey accents emulate a sense of purity and thoughtfulness.
For Thinking Tree Spirits, our goal was to create an interactive packaging experience with the playful exuberance of storybooks and Rococo scrollwork, all evocative of the lush bounty of Oregon.
We designed the Thinking Tree brandmark for flexibility, personifying the brand as a contemplative woman collared and crowned with ornamental branches that either gently germinate or grow wild to fill the canvas, be it the small circular icon on the cap, or front and centre on the hangtag.
For the illustrations, we were inspired by Late Baroque mirrors to create highly dimensional packaging, using the main label for deep background artwork, and layering over it a hangtag of duplexed cardstock with a pop of purple foil and, finally, a colourful ornate frame raised to its highest relief with sculptured embossment. Hidden throughout are local and mythological life, from Odin’s ravens (‘thought’ and ‘memory’), to the polyphemus moth (whose eyespots are named after Homer’s cyclops) and its caterpillars, down to the great horned owl, whose face is composed of oak leaves.
On the hangtag’s verso, the linework is reproduced by a letterpress, whose raised ink, along with the purple string that ties tag to neck, all add to the rich tactile experience. Here, one is invited to be creative, whether scribbling thoughts or verse, notes on a new infusion, or a kind gift-letter to a friend.
Over the past year, Andrew Zo had the opportunity to work with Biolytical, a company based in Vancouver, Canada, on the world’s fastest HIV self test. Similar to an over the counter product, such as a pregnancy test, the INSTI® HIV Self Test can be operated completely by the user. The goal was an approachable design that can be easily operated.
A few key factors in creating Biolytical’s user-friendly packaging:
The packaging provides an operations area, which ensures the test can be self-contained during use. An opaque sealable plastic bag is also included for easy and discreet disposal.
Extensive user trials were conducted to validate instructions and diagrams. The manual was designed into a booklet instead of a map fold for a more user-friendly experience.
The psychology of the buyer was considered when creating the box graphics. A clean and minimal design was chosen to create an approachable look. The design opted for a calm turquoise colour scheme as well as a photograph of a hand, which indicates where the test will be performed.
THE CHALLENGE
The interest in this project for design, is the fact that it is a product free from graphic codes. Because it was never packed, or marketed, cannabis is a virgin product on a design point of view. We have approached the product with no bias. Except for some visual references related to the world of reggae and a certain underground culture, cannabis appears blank and available to all forms of experimentation in packaging design and branding.
THE STORY
From function to design every aspect of this artifact of our market society are studied, compared and analyzed. When you think about it, packaging tells the story of our society, our lifestyle, our habits, and our values, etc. According to Greek mythology, Apollo is the god of music, poetry and healing. The cigar has a small amount of savita cannabis type which tend to be uplifting and creative with celebrally effects. The idea is to introduce a new cannabis product in an elevated term. The Apollo is used as branding image for the product because he illustrates the artistic life style. Such as drinking wine, today smoking cannabis could be considered as a form of "Art de vivre".
With the increasing sales in Jams, Preserves, Honey & All Natural products retail categories, there is quite a pressure from other competitors to Wellesley brand. Apple butter is definitely a healthier alternative than other breakfast jams/spreads in the market with no added sugar, no preservatives, and no fat. Compared to other Apple Butter competitors, Wellesley’s is all-natural and the only product of Canada that also 100% uses Ontario grown, tree ripened apples for their products. However, we believe that this packaging does not do its justice on portraying the quality, reliability, and the healthy aspect of the brand. The current design is outdated and becoming less relevant to the targeted consumers compared to other brands. While Brands like President’s Choice and Smuckers are really stepping up their game through their packaging, marketing strategy, and product quality we believe that by redesigning the packaging Wellesley will be able to compete with these brand giants.
By keeping the quality and tradition values of Wellesley in mind, we propose our design in which we believe is the most appealing to moms (particularly stay at home moms); the demographic of consumers who are most likely will buy the product the most. Wellesley’s Apple Butter is appealing to young adults, professionals and stay at home moms who have plenty of time to cook and curious to try new alternatives for their sugary spreads. Our proposed design will also reach to a wider range of audience, including young professionals that are looking for healthier alternatives of their sweet buttery cravings, apple enthusiasts as well as people on special diets. Not only it is an accessory food to put on a toast, consumers can also use apple butter for meat (pork, chicken, beef, even duck), snacks, and even desserts.
