P&W Design Consultants: 2011

Wednesday, December 21, 2011

Studio 2011 Christmas Card

MERRY CHRISTMAS FROM ALL AT P&W DESIGN

As we look forward to London hosting the 2012 Olympics we thought we would take a brief look at the history of the Olympic Mascot. Since the first mascot, Waldi, made its appearance at the 1972 Munich games, the mascot has played an important marketing role as well as trying to reflect the personally and culture of the host city and country.

Earlier this year London announced Wenlock, the Olympic mascot and Mandeville, the Paralympic mascot, to the world. These two digital-age characters were created from the last two drops of British steel which was used in the construction of the Olympic Stadium. The Wenlock & Mandeville merchandising has been growing and though there has been some negative press towards these little characters, ultimately they will service the purpose to promote the games.

Holiday Range | Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market

We have designed the seasonal branding for Tesco’s US chain Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market. The holiday branding solution was implemented on their private label packaging, advertising and point of sale materials, including a holiday guide/brochure and supporting website.

The holiday packaging range spans all categories impulse, grocery, bakery, dairy, meat and frozen. A palette of colors was chosen to cover the entire holiday season, implemented through the striped background. The use of bright, eye-catching colors expresses the fact that these are seasonal (out of the norm) offerings. Oranges and purple for fall/Halloween/thanksgiving and red and green for winter/Christmas, the additional colors used on impulse and gifting items to round out the color scheme.

Handcrafted scrolls contain fun holiday and celebratory illustrations. Large windows showcase the products where possible and deliver freshness.

"We wanted to create a colorful and enticing range of products that have a gift wrapped feel but still appear fresh and foodie. The hand drawn holding device and background textures help drive a bespoke handmade feeling to the range, whilst the hand sketched icons re-enforce the seasonal message without shouting about it. We hope the range comes across as fun, fresh and an alternative to the predictable preconceptions of what holiday packaging should look like, however, still retaining the all important added value cues you would expect from a holiday range."

Wednesday, November 23, 2011

A-Z | Giving back

P&W LA were invited to volunteer with Fresh and Easy “Fighting hunger & giving hope” at the Los Angeles Regional Food Bank

P&W wins Design Excellence Award

We are excited to announce that we’ve just won a Design Excellence Award for our Tesco Finest Italian Ready Meals.

“The PLBuyer Design Excellence Awards is an exciting new awards program developed by PLBuyer – the #1 media brand serving the private label industry – aimed to recognize the very best in private label package design. The PLBuyer Design Excellence Awards was judged by a distinguished panel of package design professionals.” PLBuyer

A-Z | Chicago Architecture

Founded in 1837, Chicago is famous for a few things; having some of the world’s first skyscrapers, the treasured Chicago River and the Magnificent mile.

In 1909 Chicago's great city planner and famed architect Daniel H. Burnham proposed 'The plan of Chicago' which laid out plans for the future of the city and in 1920 the Magnificent mile was constructed.

Chicago's Magnificent Mile (a portion of Michigan Avenue extending from the River to Oak Street) is internationally recognized as a world-renown destination. It is home to shops, restaurants, museums, hotels and several prestigious and historical buildings and attracts more than 22 million visitors annually! Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Reproduction #LC-USZ62-36686

John Hancock Building (completed 1969), Wrigley Building (built 1920), Trump Tower (completed 2009)

P&W is a Double Pentaward Winner!!

We are excited to announce that we’ve just won 2 design awards for our work with Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market.

“A prestigious awards program dedicated exclusively to Packaging Design, judged and awarded by an international panel composed of 12 packaging design professionals”

A-Z | Lomography

Our very own Nicola is an avid lomographer in her spare time, so we thought it was suitable for to write a piece for “L”.

Lomography began with a fateful encounter in the early 1990s. Igniting a new style of artistic experimental photography that we now know as Lomography! http://www.lomography.com

Since getting my first camera a Holga 120CFN Medium format camera back in 2009, my collection has rapidly grown to about 16, you could say that I’m hooked!

Making the most of my creativity outside of work has broadened my horizons, I’ve started to see things differently and it’s really inspired me. When taking a photograph I want it to be impactful and have a meaning behind it. It’s so easy nowadays to snap away on your digital camera or iphone (as that’s now the no1 choice of camera on flickr!). Bring back the experimentation of film, the excitement of not seeing your what you’ve taken straight away, waiting for your developed films to come back, and even more for me...scanning each one in myself.

Earlier this year I had a whirlwind 24h trip to Paris, I had one mission, to take as many photos as possible, and look at Paris in a different way, taking iconic landmarks and putting my spin on them...

Then back in May I was lucky enough to go on a once in a lifetime fly drive to Florida, taking in a 800 mile trip including St Petes, Key West and Miami, oh and a sneaky trip to New York... it had to be done.

These are one of a kind, can never be replicated shots.... that’s what I love about lomography, and I hope to inspire you. I’ve also started a monthly free online mag book for avid lomography fans if you fancy checking it out lomolovers vol.1

And for more of my work click on the link http://www.flickr.com/photos/kenickie56/

Thursday, July 14, 2011

A-Z | Kinder

P&W have had the pleasure of working with Ferrero for over three years now. During this time we have developed a brilliant relationship with them and we have been had the privilege to work on fantastic projects across their entire confectionary range.

This year Ferrero is launching a multi million pound media campaign to boost brand awareness and escape the ‘foreign’ stereotype that is sometimes felt across its chocolate ranges. This is a very exciting period for the brand and we are helping to support their efforts as they aim to attract new consumers to try their delicious range of very successful treats.

Below are some quick snapshots and short descriptions of what you may have seen from some of the product ranges in the last 3 years since we have had the pleasure of working with them:

Kinder Surprise

Has featured top movie partnerships and innovative toys of best-loved children’s characters such as Shrek, Ice Age and Pixar’s latest film, Rio. The brand logo has had a bit of a makeover and now appears much stronger across POS and packaging with boosted colours and a beveled 3D effect.

Kinder Bueno

Have run exciting competitions in partnership with big names such as Warner Brothers and its Sex and the City 2 promotion offered their customers a fabulous night out in the capital to celebrate the release of the new film. It is a very exciting time for Bueno as it has stood firm against the competition from Twix Fino and KitKat Senses as well as other big players in the confectionary market. The new media campaign will be a great way to celebrate its success and invite new customers to try it.

Kinder Chocolate

In 2005 the identity of the original Kinder Kid was revealed as that of Guenter Euringer from Munich, smashing rumors that his image was simply drawn or made up. Soon after revealing his identity, Father of two, Guenter released his autobiography The Chocolate Kid’ which shared his life story of what it was like to be one of the most famous faces in Germany and

then the rest of the world after his picture was taken in 1973.

In 2010, Kinder launched its ‘New Face of Kinder’ competition for which kids from England and Ireland competed to become one of the new 5 kinder kids and appear on the front of chocolate packs for a year. Contestants were asked to send in a photo of themselves along with a quote to show an insight into their personality. There were thousand of young hopefuls and the competition was such a success that it has just finished its second year.

Kinder Seasonal

Has seen a new illustrative style which translates across their spring / summer products and them easily adjusts to their autumn / winter products. Last Easter also saw the release of their brand new product – Kinder mini eggs! (for which we designed the packaging)

The first installment of the new media campaign can now be seen on our television screens as the advertisements have taken on a much bigger family feel and feature innovative, futuristic toys for both boys and girls alike. If you haven’t seen the adverts already then take a look at the youtube clips below:

We wish Ferrero all the best in their latest push and look forward
to working with them for many more years to come.

Tuesday, June 28, 2011

P&W is a Dieline Award Winner!!

We are excited to announce that we’ve just won our first Dieline Award for our Fresh & Easy kids cereal.

“The Dieline Awards, launched in 2009, is a worldwide package design competition devoted exclusively to the art of brand packaging. Judged by a panel of industry leaders, winners were chosen in 10 categories from over 800 entries around the world. ” thedieline.com

The three-strong range, Cookie Bites, Cocoa Sharks and Apple & Cinnamon Smiles, is designed to achieve cut-through in a category replete with bright colors, artificial flavors and cartoon characters.

With a sense of fun we transformed the boxes into individual characters, each one about to guzzle back a bowl of their favorite cereal. Their bold, graphic style is unique to the market and stands apart from the more visually cluttered branded competitors. To increase engagement and repeat purchase, and imbue the packs with Fresh & Easy’s personality, we also created games, such as mazes and fun word-finders, to feature on back of pack.

“We are very proud of the new Fresh & Easy Kids’ cereals range. There is so much choice within breakfast cereals in the USA, that it can be fairly bewildering for parents who just want to give their children a nutritious start to the day. Our work with Fresh & Easy has been all about helping US consumers to choose top-quality products. To come up with a set of designs that not only stand out at the fixture but also use the whole of the pack to add a real sense of fun to compete with the brands, is testament to the insight and ability of our design team.”

Tuesday, May 24, 2011

A-Z | Japanese Innovations

Combining style, function and in some cases humour, Japan has been leading the way in product design for many years.

We at P&W have a close connection with the Japanese market through our work with Seicomart and are always looking out for new and classic packaging and product design for inspiration.

Paper hook created by Torafu Architects, is an ingeniously simple yet fun design. The paper tape becomes firm enough to work as wall hooks when wet and dried.
Source information - http://torafu.com/works/tap

When style and function work in harmony. D-bros created a series of 'watering cans' from flat plastic sheets which in turn can be used a plant vase.

Source information from http://jpdesign.org/

H-concept released a product named 'Akanbe', which is a Japanese facial expression that makes fun of others. The 'Akanbe', designed by Takashi Hojo, is made from felt and sturdier enough to use as a magazine or storage holder

Source information http://jpdesign.org

Torafu Architects of Tokyo designed the 'Air Vase", a paper container that can be stretched into a vase, plate or bowl. The 'Air Vase' comes as a perforated flat disc that allows the user to pull up each side into the preferred shape. As the paper is a different colour on each side the vases appear to change colour when viewed from various angles.

Source information - http://torafu.com

Deliciously inventive notepad designed by Masashi Tentaku, which would brighten up any work desk. A tree twig is used as the stem of the notepad and is sold with netting to create the realistic fruit look. The only downside is that you would not want to ruin such a beautiful design by using them!

Source information http://picocool.com/