Lillevik Alpine

Creative Agency: makebardo
Project Type: Produced, Commercial Work
Client: Lillevik Alpine
Location: Queenstown, New Zealand
Packaging Contents: Cider

Lillevik Alpine is a new brand of apple cider based in Queenstown, New Zealand with strong European influences. Without artificial additives this refreshing cider has a perfect balance of sweet with a powerful flavour.

Concept
We’ve created a logo based around an attractive illustration shield. The design of the shield was inspired by the name ‘Lillevik Alpine’ that refers to a family holiday home in Norway belonging to the maker of the Cider.

Regarding the morphology of the shield we decided to work with lines, responding to the connection between Europe and Oceania. This is one of the main values that the brand has.

We wanted to reflect the origins of the maker, since the taste of the cider blends between a traditional European flavour and the freshness and modernity of Oceania. Our goal is to communicate an honest identity of a product with a simplicity that makes it great. It is important to clarify that the decision to create a shield was not based on defense or heraldry. The family’s memories and special moments in their Alpine house are reflected and commemorated in this small postcard.

There is a relevance and intention that underpins every choice. The typography, colour palette, label material and print finish, all give to Lillevik Alpine Cider an impactful and appropriate visual identity. We believe that the blue shield over the red background creates a personal and different approach in this product category that generates an impact on the street.

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Kapiti Milk

Creative Agency: Curious Design
Senior Designer: Monique Robins
Illustration: Jo Tronc
Project Type: Produced, Commercial Work
Client: Kapiti
Location: Auckland, New Zealand
Packaging Contents: Milk
Packaging Substrate / Materials: Plastic

As renowned producers of speciality cheeses and high quality ice cream, it made perfect sense for Kapiti Fine Foods to launch their own milk range. As you’d expect though, this is no ordinary milk-it is a premium, organic product that delivers on the Kapiti promise of quality, freshness and innovation. It’s as close as you can get to pure cows’ milk, with nothing added and nothing taken away.

Such a premium product obviously needed packaging that reflected all of these qualities. Firstly a proprietary bottle was created that featured an embossed Kapiti logo. A simple, classic shape that evokes all of the cues of a bygone age-when milk was delivered to your door in a glass bottle. Curious was then commissioned to create the packaging tone of voice to complement this. Our goal from the outset was to allow the rich, creamy quality of the milk to be the hero to the consumer and unencumbered by excessive visual ‘noise’. This was achieved by using transparent labelling, simple colour coding for each variant and an emphasis on classic typography and iconography-with a contemporary edge. The key feature of the product (organic) and the supporting lettering were handcrafted by artist Jo Tonc to reflect the care and attention that Kapiti lavished on creating this outstanding range of milk. All in all, a sophisticated solution for a very sophisticated brand.

As usual, Curious has delivered.

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Superb Herb

Creative Agency: Dow Design Ltd
Creative Director: Donna McCort
Designer: Brendon O'Dwyer
Account Director: Rebecca Hamer
Client Marketing Manager: Brigitte Hannett
Pack Photography: Jamie Pettigrew
Project Type: Produced, Commercial Work
Client: Superb Herb
Location: Auckland, New Zealand
Packaging Contents: Fresh Herbs
Packaging Materials: Plastic & Card

Superb Herb - A cut above.
It was all in the name for us. As they say, the name really did say it all. But Superb Herb was hiding its name under a bushel. And green on green is no way to command attention for what is a superb product, so they took our sage advice not to be another green washed brand. The results have been nothing short of spectacular. Blossoming across supermarkets like well-watered herbs in a hothouse, the new look Superb Herb has increased distribution for this innovative fifteen year old business. But more importantly, it has made them the natural, everyday addition to everybody's shopping trolley.

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Treasury of Candles

Creative Agency: Afterhours, London
Photography: Anderson
Project Type: Produced, Commercial Work
Client: The Treasury of Candles, New Zealand
Packaging Contents: Fraranced Candles
Packaging Materials: Glass Jars, Foil blocking/ stamping, Metal lids, Carton board, Organza ribbon

Strategy, brand creation, naming, identity, product branding, packaging, tone of voice, website and communications for a premium, hand made candle retailer.

Built around the core insight that candles make any moment more special and memorable- whether it’s a dinner party or just a relaxing bath, the brand idea is rooted in the concept of ‘Moments to Treasure’.

The launch offer, a flagship range of contemporary ring reveal candles, builds on the above with the promise of a memento of that moment too- one with both emotional and monetary value - an actual treasure!

The brand idea is brought to life in the name and across all elements of the identity:

The core brand mark is a foil blocked candelabra motif creating the signature T. The candelabra, as a precious and treasured home for candles, felt like a fitting symbol for the business.

The ring reveal candle and packaging had to reflect the promise of an item to treasure and as such displays many luxury cues:

The candle is housed in a silk finished clam-shell gift box which parallels the format of luxury ring / jewellery packaging.

Each one is tied with a bespoke ombre print organza ribbon, foil blocked with the variant name. The names themselves were created as part of a broader language & TOV piece and seeks to capture the emotional experience of each fragrance and utilise language which hints at the treasure within: Enduring, shimmering, desiring, adventuring etc.

The candles jars themselves are semi opaque white glass with embossed gold lids, both classically branded with the signature T motif and Treasuring range symbol .

Inside each is an ombre watercolour printed dust insert, foil blocked with details of each signature fragrance notes.

To accompany the above, we also designed the website and art directed the brand building imagery it features, working with Photography by Anderson.

These showcase the product range and elements on hand painted watercolour backdrops to capture the sensual, ethereal qualities of the fragrances.

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Santa Rosa

Creative Agency: Dow Design
Creative Director: Donna McCort
Account Director: Rebecca Hamer
Designer: Leonie Whyte
Project Type: Produced, Commercial Work
Client: Santa Rosa
Location: New Zealand
Packaging Contents: Poultry

The thing about chicken is, while everybody loves it and it's our go-to dinner dish, that very everydayness makes it, well, a bit boring. Santa Rosa are in the chicken business. But let's face it, no one needs to see another photo of a plate of white meat and veg, sitting on a sticker, on a tray of chicken. So for this older brand trying to fly past other birds in the coop, we thought for chickens' sake, let's not be boring. Enter colour and collaboration. It's all about us and you, getting cooking and creating with chicken in the kitchen. The colour was already in the name. We could practically hear the castanets clicking. So, bright pops of colour and plenty of winning prompts have people clucky over another chicken dinner.

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Nutri-Grain Bolt

Creative Agency: Geometry Global New Zealand
Designer Reuben Hannaford
Creative Director Peter Wujkowski
Art Director Borja Iciz
Photography Theo Leach
Project Type: Produced, Commercial Work
Client: Kellogg's
Location: Auckland, New Zealand
Packaging Contents: Breakfast Cereal
Packaging Materials: Cardboard

Nutri-Grain wanted to connect to teens who are glued to the couch by compelling digital content. The aim was to inspire them to get outside and be more active by using the very devices they find hard to put down.

We pushed Google Cardboard’s concept to the limit and designed a cereal pack that transforms so effortlessly, even an 8-year-old could make it into a Virtual Reality Headset. After all, this was still a gift at the bottom of a cereal box.

Opting for a stylish, futuristic aesthetic that was going to intrigue and excite teens the moment it caught their eye among the colorful commotion you’d expect to see in the cereal aisle. We decided to create a Nutri-Grain pack that turns into a Virtual Reality Headset. Combined with the Nutri-Grain smartphone app, it delivered immersive real-world experiences from the point of view of extreme professional athletes right at the breakfast table.

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Mainland - Anything But Mainstream

Creative Agency: Dow Design
Designer: Brendon O'Dwyer
Creative Director: Donna McCort
Project Type: Produced, Commercial Work
Client: Fonterra New Zealand
Location: Auckland, New Zealand
Packaging Contents: Cheese
Packaging Materials: Plastic & Card

Good things take time, but they can't stand still. Mainland, a New Zealand icon, had begun to look, well, a little too Mainstream. A subtle, but profound, design makeover was needed to give Mainland back its premium edge and speak to its key point of difference, aged cheese credentials. The addition of a shadow image of Mainland’s Central Otago heartland, more muted variant colours, and a crafted treatment of the fonts, all add up to a sophisticated makeover. But it was the addition of a flavour scale, and tightly linking Mainland’s unique ageing process with its distinctive taste profile, that has really step changed the mainstream cheese category. A makeover that has made Mainland anything but mainstream. So yes, good things take time, but not too much time if you want to stay ahead of the game.

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SER!OUS Smoothies

Creative Agency: Curious Design
Project Type: Produced, Commercial Work
Client: SER!OUS Smoothies
Location: Auckland, New Zealand
Packaging Contents: Smoothie Mix
Packaging Materials: Plastic

Seriously good

These are smoothies that offer a serious wake-up call for your body. And just like a pair of lycra shorts, they’re jam packed, with all the good bits bursting to get out. These are seriously healthy smoothies for people who are serious about their health.

Smoothies are taking grocery by storm. Quick, easy and nutritious, the appetite for smoothies has taken off. And frozen berries are one of the fastest growing categories in grocery.

The only snag for smoothie lovers is making sure they have the right ingredients in their cupboard. More often than not, the fruit gets old and ends up in the bin rather than their blender.

That’s where Serious Smoothies steps in: offering a healthy concoction of flash frozen fruit, vegetables, nuts and superfood ingredients, designed for those hungry for convenience. With an ingredient list that would make any food nutritionist smile, making a quick, healthy breakfast or snack is now a cinch.

Curious’ task was to create a design that showed that a trip to the freezer could be just as beneficial as a trip to the gym.

We seriously believed that the natural ingredients needed to be the hero of the packaging. And we also needed to find a way to convey the simplicity of usage – straight from pack to blender.

That problem created a compelling solution – fresh, lush ingredients packed into a glass to showcase their vibrant colours at their best. And which subliminally suggests the ease of usage. To ensure that the appetite-laden glass stood out like the proverbial, we kept the background as a pristine white ‘frame’, only punctuated by the evocative product names, relevant ingredients and key information.

Our quest for simplicity extended to the logo lock-up. Simple and understated with the important stuff like ‘all natural’ and ‘no nasties’ featured within the logo design.

To emphasize that this product is a serious alternative to traditional smoothie making methods – and to add personality and instant brand recall, we also replaced the ‘i’ in the word ‘Serious’ with an exclamation mark.

The result? A design so successful that it has achieved seriously good results for our client!

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THINK Packaging

Designed by Mat Bogust, New Zealand.

Brief: To design 2 concepts to present as a thank you gift.
Based on what every architect has used before I just had to develop the yellow pencil in some way. With perfect execution this blew them away. I then decided to go festive & create a cracker. Keeping it classy and adding a personal touch - the clients new house placed on top…

A simple note inside or some hand made chocolates - a great gift.

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Columbine (Re-designed)

Designed by Dow Design, New Zealand.

The new logo and branding modernises the Columbine image, positioning the brand as a quality product for the mainstream market and creating brand cohesion across the range. “We wanted to communicate Columbine’s quality and stylishness while making an impact,” says Dow Design’s Creative Director Donna McCort."

“Although a trusted brand, Columbine lacked the personality needed to properly stand-out and attract the attention of younger shoppers. By giving the brand a fashionable new look, the packaging reflects the modern quality product inside and keeps Columbine right up with its competition.”

"The new Columbine logo makes a dramatic statement in today’s fashion-focused market with an artistic and contemporary arrangement of the Columbine letters in a custom-built decorative typeface. Held within a strong black circle, this creates an eye catching symbol to cut through in the competitive hosiery market, capturing the brand's unique sense of elegance and effortless beauty.

Columbine Managing Director, Alistair Thorpe, says the time is right for a rebrand. “We have essentially had the same look since 1989 and I knew a brand refresh was overdue.

“Inspired by both the pride of being ‘New Zealand Made’ and the modern designs I had seen in Europe, I wanted something that was individual but also contemporary. Knowing some of Dow Design’s work, I knew they were the company to take us there.”

Dow Design retained and reworked Columbine's traditional black and gold colours, pairing them with a style of minimal photography that features the same model across the range. Unlike most hosiery imagery, which features just leg imagery, her face is seen and reinforces the natural beauty that Columbine so values.

“We wanted to communicate that the Columbine lady is naturally chic with subtle sex appeal and the model’s face communicates an honesty to which customers can naturally relate,” says Dow’s Senior Designer on the project, Hannah Gordon.

She explains that shopping the hosiery category can easily feel overwhelming and confusing. “So, as well as creating a consistent look across the range, we have introduced a darkening background colour that lets shoppers identify the options more quickly and more easily. The overall outcome is a stronger, fashion-focused brand”.

Established in 1951, Columbine is the only remaining New Zealand based hosiery manufacturer. Headquartered in Gisborne, the family business employs 100 people and also manufactures Harlequin men’s socks. Its products are widely available throughout New Zealand and Australia at both major department stores and smaller independent retailers.

Dow Design’s Columbine offering follows recent successes in rebranding long established local brands such as Anchor, DB Export, Hellers, Primo, Fresh‘n Fruity, Brancott Estate (Montana) wines and Robert Harris. The brand design specialists are also behind the recent redesign of the Alison’s Pantry section of New World and Pak‘n Save stores nationwide, and are consultants to Auckland’s new Q Theatre.

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Stoke Beer

Designed by Supply, New Zealand.

McCashin’s Brewery was born in 1980 when hotelier and former All-Black Terry McCashin and his wife, Bev, bought the Rochdale Cider Factory in the small upper-South Island city of Nelson New Zealand. They had a plan to brew a distinctive, high-quality beer, McCashin’s Brewery soon became the most successful independent microbrewery in the country.

Its award-winning 100% naturally-brewed beer revolutionised the way beer was produced. and won the hearts and taste buds of the nation.

Now the next generation of McCashin’s have carried on the tradition in this historic brewery, and created New Zealand’s newest locally produced premium craft beer, Stoke.

This premium beer is batched brewed and tank conditioned for over 3 weeks. Using Nelson’s famous organic hops, premium malt, bespoke yeast, contains no artificial additives or coloring, and to top it off 14,000 year old pure Palaeo water. The entire process from brewing to bottling happens on the site at Stoke.

Stoke sets itself apart from commercialized beers on the market through its premium quality ingredients and the McCashin’s honesty to their product and consumers. The brand and packaging reflects these ideals through its understated no fuss typographic layout. A simple colour palette distinguishes varietals whilst the gold foil details reflect its premium attributes.

Stoke’s label designs clearly tell you what it is without the fluff of it’s competitors. An elegant yet masculine bottle shape accentuates its sturdy southern roots but speaks to it’s discerning new consumers. Stoke has received great success already, with it’s deep history, honest qualities and unique design consumers finally have a true craft beer to love again.

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The Pie Monster

Designed by Fernando Fernandes & Silmo Bonomi, Brazil.

O Monstro da Torta means The Pie Monster in English and it is a new fashion brand of baby clothes in São Paulo, Brazil.

The challenge was to create a stylish package to be different in this market. The brand’s concept is about a Monster, who came from a place called Monstrozelândia, very close to New Zealand, and he found in Brazil happiness and some good mates. He also LOVES meat pies and does everything to eat them. He is lovely, friendly, blue and huge. He likes kids but he never appears in the story, just small parts of his body.

After a lot of effort to make our idea viable in terms of costs and production we came up with the idea to use pie packages (very popular in Brazil) and bring to them a refined look. They are printed in 5 colors (one being metallic), plus varnish and lamination BOPP.

This brand has a very clear mindset. They want to become a kind of fairytale and once that happens, they will launch new products expanding their business to different segments such as; books, food, toys, etc.

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Kiva

Designed by Marx Design, New Zealand.

Kiva is an Australian brand for women who want to kick-start their metabolism by drinking diet coffee or a slimming hot chocolate rather than fatty lattes. When it comes to health drinks, it’s all too easy to show a skinny girl smiling as she balances on some scales. We didn’t want to do that. The client was actually quite brave on this job but he knew a departure from the norm was required to stand out on shelves. Hence the fun, illustrated look and feel that extends right through to the copy. And the deep colour palettes that hint to the coffee’s full rich flavour. It’s all very retro yet contemporary.

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Cern - Terminus

Designed by Marx Design, New Zealand.

Artwork for drum and base albums has long since fallen into a formula of pixel fonts and industrial design but the problem with that is the music has moved on. Our approach was to embrace the surreal moodiness of Terminus, by creating six provocative airbrushed illustrations, all cropped in the iconic die-cut window of the cover. This gave fans the opportunity to slide in their preferred cover.

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Jeds Coffee Co.

Designed by Shine Limited, New Zealand.

The mainstream coffee segment in New Zealand had the potential to be stimulated by an exciting new product that did not confine itself to the old category norms.

The opportunity was to demystify the Roast and Ground category by removing the coffee jargon, be more open and informative to the consumer. Jed’s Coffee Co. stands for Just Great Coffee.

Easy to follow design points you to plunger/filter or beans and takes you through the 3 easy steps in strength – mild, medium and strong.
With a clean, modern look, Jed’s is designed to ping out on shelf in a heavily cluttered market.

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Hellers

Designed by Dow Design, New Zealand.

Hellers, the iconic meats brand, has been given a new look at the hands of brand design expert Dow Design.

The brand refresh positions Hellers as ‘New Zealand’s Butcher’ bringing to mind the nostalgic days of friendly, fresh, local suppliers of produce.

The rebrand is the result of a long standing relationship between Dow Design and Hellers, the two companies having worked together for over a decade.

“We wanted to communicate that at its heart, Hellers is a passionate local butcher,” says Dow Design’s Senior Creative Andrew Sparrow. “While it may have outgrown the small shop where it all began in Brighton, Christchurch, the Hellers commitment to quality remains deeply rooted.”

Hellers Founding Director, Todd Heller says he was excited by what Dow Design would come up with, even before seeing the first designs. “Knowing what Dow had done for brands like Fresh’n Fruity yogurt, we knew it would bring something special and take the Hellers brand to a new place. And we weren’t disappointed. Dow had not only heard our brief but exceeded our expectations. I remember the immediate ‘wow’ factor when we saw the first design for shaved meats,” he says.

The new Hellers logo – in the form of a hanging butcher’s sign with its ‘come on in’ appeal - echoes the roots of Hellers through generations of butchers. The logo also incorporates the original slogan “as sure as Hellers”, carrying with it a friendly assurance of quality.

The logo was unveiled by Prime Minister, Rt Hon John Key, at the recent opening of the company’s new 6000m sq. world class plant at Kaiapoi, where it will be displayed on the building and street signage.

The new packaging has a similar ‘butcher’s shop’ look that also brings a fresh new visual approach to the Hellers range with appealing food photography.

“The time was right to revitalise the brand,” says Todd Heller, “Our earlier innovations had become standard; we needed to rediscover what makes Hellers different.”

“We wanted to get the brand strongly back on the pack,” says Andrew Sparrow. “The infectious story of a Kiwi family business done good had been missing, so we loaded the packaging with connotations of craft and credibility. We added short stories by Todd Heller that bring the brand to life through his down to earth passion and expertise.”

The new packaging will first appear on the shaved meats and various hams ranges from 1 December. The bacon and sausage ranges will follow in 2011, when the new look will be supported by both above and below the line advertising. Although a cohesive appearance will be maintained throughout the range, each of the four categories will have its own individual aspect.

“Both our ham on the bone and shaved meats are summer favorites, so they have been rebranded in time for Christmas and are now available in every supermarket throughout New Zealand,” says Todd Heller.

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Waitemata Limited Edition Sparkling Ale

Designed by Designworks, New Zealand.

An 80 year commemorative gift

Our brief was to re-package a limited edition of a much loved, but discontinued beer in time to celebrate DB’s 80th year of beer production. So we set out to ‘Re-mix’ a classic in an engaging, fresh way.

We worked with historical ingredients, classic imagery and old advertising lines and had a bit of fun, re-jigging the mix, re-energizing it to appeal to the aesthetic tastes of a new generation. Bright, bold, overlapping typography and shapes were screen-printed onto the box along with the advice, probably considered PC at the time - ‘drink to your health.’

This project was produced as a gift – a Christmas beer - for DB’s staff and friends that went down a treat. It’s a nod to the past, designed for DB’s people to drink to the future.

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Everything (P-Money)

Designed by Marx Design, New Zealand.

Objective
P-Money was in the process of launching his latest album ‘Everything’ and wanted something more fun, more original, than the album art on shelves in New Zealand stores right now.

Solution
Inspired by the many sample tracks on the album from days gone by – everything from 70s funk to 80s electro – we decided to celebrate the days of analogue; the days when everything was hand-crafted because there was no digital world filled with toys like Photoshop. The album artwork - which took more than 350 hours to complete - is constructed from styrofoam, balsa wood, coloured paper and cotton wool which we then shot as part of a diorama. The computer image is made relevant by the fact it is key to P-Money’s music production process - he feeds all the retro samples in to his computer in order to spit out tunes for a new generation of listeners.

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&Co

Designed by Inhouse Design, New Zealand.

&Co represents simplicity – of purpose, provenance and production. The winery produces a single exceptional estate wine each season. To emphasise this we've pared the identity back to a black and white palette. We've made a feature of the type, letting it 'speak' to the customer. &Co breaks convention with more traditional looking wine brands, topped off with the uniquely cool closure of a crown seal, we're not at all upset that once opened we have to drink the whole bottle.

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Madame Flavour

Designed by Cowan.

Bringing a personal touch to mainstream tea, Madame Flavour harnesses the feminine illustrative style to deliver intricate tea blend flavours that compliment that little moment of time where one can reflect, connect and rejuvenate.

The unique “pod” format and iconically female branding ensures that MF will stand out from the mass market Twinings and Lipton brand offerings.

After just two weeks, sales showed an intermediate high, with both Sultry Chai and Green, Jasmine & Pear performing in Woolworths at six month expectation level, without any marketing activity.

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