Computer Arts - UK (2019-11)

COMPUTERARTS.CREATIVEBLOQ.COM

INDUSTRY INSIGHT NOVEMBER 2019

visualise the intense flavours of the

brands, resulting in intensely colourful

illustrations. “By following Japanese

design principles, we applied these to

a cool black background for consistent

brand blocking to stand out in a chaotic

supermarket environment.”

TAS TE E XPERIENCE

Robot Food was recently approached

by traditional family run bakery, Bells

of Lazonby, to build a new brand for its

innovative new vegan cake slices. “From

our initial workshop, what struck a chord

was the company’s wealth of knowledge

and expertise within the free-from

sector, as well as its undoubted passion

for baking and creating the best quality

products,” says Oglesby.

Creating a blueprint for the brand

that defined it as the ‘Masters of the

art form’, Robot Food took a close

look at the competitors and found an

aisle full of worthy brands with no

distinguishable features and labels that

were full of restrictions. Oglesby and her

team quickly spotted an opportunity.

“We were able to tap into a consumer

need that other brands missed. One of

maximum indulgence and minimum

compromise, removing the boundaries

of ‘free-from’ to transcend categories and

rewrite the rules of indulgence.”

Positioning the brand around a ‘taste

experience’, the team looked outside

of the category, taking cues from the

world of premium indulgence to create

a new language within the free-from

aisles. This led to developing its creative

proposition ‘The Unexpected.’ “For this

particular project, the first point of call

was creating a name and aesthetic that

lived up to the taste experience and

emphasised the multi-layered aspect

of the product. The name ‘Bells and

Whistles’ delivered everything we needed

and more. Just like the cakes, the focus is

on what goes in, not what’s left out.”

With a proud nod to its heritage and

parent brand Bells of Lazonby, without

being harnessed to the past, the name

firmly sets the brand up for a progressive

future ahead, explains Oglesby.

“Black and white creates stand out on

busy shelves and signals a premium

proposition. It provided us with a canvas

for the brands to explore the idea of

artistry and show off the decadent cakes

themselves, illustrating the abundance of

ingredients packed into each slice with a

sprinkling of extra touches.”

For many of us, the experience of

buying food is an emotional one – and

sometimes ritualistic. We browse the

aisles, identifying the brands we’re

familiar with, filling our shopping

trolley almost on auto-pilot without

giving too much thought to why we

pick one brand over another. Are these

decisions driven by familiarity or hard

wired in our psyche or is something

else going on?

“Ninety five per cent of decisions are

driven by our non-conscious, but clients

are spending practically 100 per cent of

their research budget on things that only

influence five per cent of purchasing

decisions,” says Hartley. “Implicit

memory is important – together with the

category codes and semiotics – by using

all the senses to trigger human emotion.

It’s an emotional response you need to

elicit from people. That means embracing

the notion that the experience of buying

food is an emotional one, and then using

all the design principles.”

LIFE ENHANCEMENTS

Ultimately, consumers are looking for

brands that enhance their lives, whether

that’s best in taste, convenience, quick

fix, health or shareability, says Caroline

Dilloway, client services director at

London-based brand design consultancy

StormBrands. “Food packaging

should make it easy for consumers to

understand the role that brand will play

to make their lives better.”

Vault49 loves to wow clients and

create disruptive design, working

with a range of techniques like hand-

crafted illustration, intricate detailing,

and cutting-edge execution. “With

Baileys, for example, we always strive

to achieve ‘lick the bottle deliciousness’

on every pack we design. Everything

is handcrafted in a way that resembles

the world of treats and desserts, using

techniques such as drizzling, dusting and

marbling,” says Chandler.

“Other times, we focus on the pack

looking amazing, new, and different,” she

continues. “This elicits the consumer’s

need to reward themselves – and we love

1

“Delight up-close. Think crafted

imperfections and surprising

details that make a consumer fall in

love with what they’re holding. If you’re

aiming to engage the consumer in both

these ways, your work will connect to

the right kinds of audiences and pique

their interest.” Leigh Chandler, creative

director, Vault 49

2

“Talking about illustration and

sharing additional creative on

their feed is a great way to expand the

brand world, and great for supporting

creativity in general.” Rachel Smith,

creative partner, & SMITH

3

“Create a visual world that feels

unique and disruptive in the

category. This is the core of our work

at Vault49 – if you’re not delighting

and disrupting, how can you expect

your work to make an impact?” Leigh

Chandler, creative director, Vault 49

4

“Consider strong flavour cues on

pack. It will get people’s mouth

watering and prompt them to pick it

up before they have read anything

(people really don’t read a lot). Some

really thick, good-quality chocolate for

example or a dollop of peanut butter.

In Instaworld, a brand can also win

someone over if it looks good enough to

share.” Rachel Smith, creative partner

at & SMITH

5

“The most important

consideration, as a creative

thinker, is how to use your intelligence

to create a brand world.” Helen Hartley,

creative director, Elmwood

HOW TO STAND

OUT ON THE SHELF