Meadows Aromatherapy
Branding, Illustration, Packaging
2012
A strongly ethical company, Meadows sells high quality, affordable essential oil products. The company was founded over 20 years ago when director, Darryn Payne spotted a growing trend in the perfumery market. Meadows was one of the first in the UK to retail 100% pure essential oil products and alongside growing sales at home it developed a significant presence in Asia, particularly within the Japanese market.
- Meadows Aromatherapy
Re-branding and packagingCarried out under the Design Council's Designing Demand scheme - Meadows principal markets are in Asia, particularly Japan where the brand is highly regarded.A lot of the redesign was a matter of attention to detail. Our first task was to understand how the Meadows proposition was understood and identify the existing brand and packaging elements that best expressed this. It became apparent very early on that Meadows customers related to the hand crafted nature of the packs, their 'Englishness' and the underlying ethos and quality of the brand.Meadows Managing Director, Darryn Payne had this to say about the project outcome in an interview for the Design Council. "Our Japanese distributor got really excited when he saw the new packaging concepts and we are now very confident that we will be able not only to consolidate but also expand our position in Asia. The branding has also given an edge to our new product range. It will stand against anything in the market so we have high hopes for increased sales in the UK as well. Peter’s real understanding of packaging has enabled us to now have a design that works well for all the right reasons, and will also be highly cost-effective in the long term."
- The meadow illustration was created to be part of the brand re-design. Obviously it is a visual expression of the companies core values and ethos. It is always used within the core product group - the essential oils and on brand promotion material, but it is used sparingly and wherever possible in places where you wouldn't expect to find it: on the back of the oil cartons, for instance.
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The combination of strong, stylish packaging, premium ingredients and sensitive pricing led to a fast and very successful launch, establishing the brand in major London department stores within the first six months. Flint Edge can now be found in House of Fraser, Fortnum and Mason, Fenwick in Bond Street and Brent Cross, Whole Foods Markets, Mankind, Salon Skincare, Look Mantastic, Errol Douglas, Fordham Soho, Claudio Contrasti and is listed amongst the designer brands on the UnderU web site. The range has featured in Zoo, The Sunday Times, Men's Health, The Daily Express, Daily Mail, Stuff and GT. Flint Edge now has major distribution agreements across the World.Branding, Packaging2012 -
Mir was created by holistic skin care expert Gisèle Mir, a former London lawyer turned cosmetic scientist. Blending beneficial botanicals with enlightened cosmetic science, Mir is designed to balance and soothe sensitive or blemish-prone skin without clogging pores. It is the only range free from fragrance, essential oils, soap, sulphates, fatty alcohols and comedogenic substances.Branding, Packaging2012 -
We were asked to express, through the branding, Tuhin Dev's south east asian origins and his belief in the efficacy of natural ingredients when combined with the right science. The range proposition offered users the most effective natural and nature identical ingredient formulations to produce lasting tangible benefits.
Sadly, as sometimes happens; the client, badly advised by his marketing consultant, decided that we were not listening to his wishes and handed the project to another designer. Much of what we had designed was used and we were paid for our work. You can judge the outcome for yourself by visiting the client's web site.
http://www.drtuhindev.co.ukBranding, Packaging2012 -
Victoria Moore has spent her life travelling the world. Her fascination with the natural benefits of plants and her experiences with distant cultures are brought together within her own products which are subtle and natural. In London, Victoria has joined forces with G.Baldwin and Co the capitals oldest, most established herbalist to create her Tropical Collection skincare range.Branding, Graphic Design, Packaging2012 -
One of those projects that gets you into the office early and keeps you there till late.Branding, Illustration, Packaging2012 -
One of several new projects for Meadows.
Natural Space Sprays are just what you need on a stuffy metro or in a crowded lift. There is a Japanese word 'Ma' that roughly translates as 'gap', 'space' or 'pause'. I was looking for a very simple way of communicating that idea when I noticed how an umbrella creates a kind of personal space for the user who is under it, and when viewed in a group from above they take on a kind of cellular relationship.
The decoration area on the labels has to be quite shallow to accommodate the branding and descriptive text above, so the graphic had to be very simple to retain it's legibility and be easy to colour shift for each fragrance. The final design has huge shelf presence for a very small brown plastic bottle, so my client's japanese distributors were delighted.
Part of the Meadows re-design has been an evaluation of packaging materials. All glass bottles and jars are now made from recycled brown glass and all caps are made from post consumer waste material as are these amber tinted 100ml tubular PET bottles. The labels are made from a polypropylene substrate which can be recycled.Digital Art, Graphic Design, Packaging2012 -
Dominic Tong's range of premium ice creams used fresh milk from the Myrtle Farm Hereford herd, piles of real fruit and very little else. Selling directly to delicatessens in the South East and London, Dominic wanted a brandmark and packaging that would sell the product benefits straight off the freezer shelf, with the minimum of point of sale material.
For a small company like Dominic's, the minimum order quantity for ice cream pots was a problem. Ten thousand of each variety would have filled the dairy. So before we did anything else, a means had to be found to minimise the stock holding. Several long discussions with Dominic's local Trading Standards Office produced the ideal solution. One pot with branding graphics for all five flavours and ingredients labels on the base. With this agreement in place we new exactly how the rest of the design would work.
As the pots would carry only generic graphics we saw an opportunity to minimise costs even further by designing the pot graphics in black and white, focussing all the colour onto the lid inserts. The 'myrtle' woodcut illustration was based on a 17th century printers sample and was designed to give the packs authenticity. Print maker Jonathon Eaves was chosen to create the lid insert illustrations. His blocky, textured style, give the illustrations a solid, vivid reality set against the pure milk white of the lids and pots.
Illustrations by print maker Jonathon Eaves.Branding, Packaging2012