Around the world simmer sauce- Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market USA

We have designed a range of cooking sauces for Fresh & Easy. Inspired by recipes from around the world, the range offers diverse and authentic sauces, perfect for introducing the inexperienced chef to easy ethnic cuisine. The vivid imagery and design details make each pack unique, allowing you to travel the world without leaving the kitchen!

The design emphasizes the use of quality ingredients through colorful ingredients based photography. By using a crystal label on an elegant glass jar; we convey honesty and belief in the product allowing the consumer to see the sauce they are purchasing. Incorporating hits of silver metallic, bright color combinations and easy-to-follow 1,2,3, cooking instructions on the back, the results are a product that will be a strong competitor within a small but growing category.

“We are very proud of the new Fresh & Easy Simmer Sauce range. This is a fairly new category in the USA, so it was important to convey the convenience and ease of cooking using a simple 3 step process on the back. Our work with Fresh & Easy has been all about helping US consumers to choose top-quality products. To come up with a elegant solution that not only stands out at the fixture but also uses the whole of the pack to communicate the quality of ingredients and ease of use, is testament to the insight and ability of our design team.”

Anthony Gormley, Breathing room III

A while ago, Mark organised a creative lunch for the team, a tradition at p&w. 8 of us went down to Anthony Gormely’s latest Exhibition Breathing room III, at the White cube Gallery, in Mason’s Yard, Mayfair. The artist had created this installation using 15 interconnecting Photo-luminescent “space frames” that filled almost the whole of the gallery space. It was like being in the 1980’s film Tron, walking through the bright blue shapes, It was very calm and relaxing to look at until... we all got a shock as the brightest lights came on filling the whole room with white light, the point being to re-charge the florescent paint on the frames, and changing the whole experience and emotions triggered by the exhibition.

“Time and light are the principal materials of the work. Breathing Room III encourages the viewer to enter into and interact with a defined sculptural space, where intense bursts of light interrupt complete darkness, unexpectedly jolting the experience from one of quiet meditation to acute interrogation.”

The trip was a success and enjoyed by all who came along, we try and encourage monthly creative lunches, which can be anything that will help getting those creative juices flowing, for inspiration and getting the team together in a different environment.

Who knows what we will all be up to on the next creative lunch?...

P&W Los Angeles | Lomography

After hearing all about the London studio’s Lomography workshop and seeing their fantastic shots, we eagerly awaited our turn at the Los Angeles Lomography gallery in West Hollywood.

We signed up for the ‘lubitel lovers’ workshop, little did we know that this is the most advanced and most expensive piece of Lomography kit. It’s twin lens, fully manual, manual focus, exposures and apertures, with a waist level view finder and can shoot flexible 120 or 35mm format.

We were briefed on the basics and the features and off we went walking the streets of West Hollywood. Part of our shooting was the busy streets of Santa Monica Boulevard and part venturing into the quieter residential neighborhoods. The double exposure feature was our favorite.

Our anticipation built before seeing the results once our film was developed.......let us know what you think of our efforts.

This style of photography is so different to our digital age and is wildly fun, not knowing what you will end up getting when the film is developed is strangely wonderful! Not being able to use any special digital color or light effects gives you an uneasy feeling but also pumps you full of creative ideas, its just a good old glass camera lens working hard for you.

A manual for the manual camera would have been nice, I don’t know if I used any of the settings correctly? I don’t think any of us did.

But that’s what Lomography is all about ... NO RULES, NO GUIDELINES TO FOLLOW, NO WRONG AND NO RIGHT, right?

*Just a hunch, but I think the LA shots might have a bit more SUNLIGHT in them, and might be great as a slide show streaming to the song “California Girls” by Katy Perry. :) 

Lubitel Ladies - lubitel-workshop

Lyndsay's 120 format shots

Heather's 120 format shots

Danielle's 35mm format shots (with exposed sprockets)

Lomo-lunch

Our resident Lomography nuts, Nicola and Jamie, have often been overheard excitedly discussing fish eye lenses, vignetting, and multiple exposures, whilst the rest of us were left wondering what all the fuss was about.

All that changed when the studio attended a Lomography workshop as part of our creative lunch series, where we were introduced to the wonderful world of Dianas and Holgas (names of their most popular cameras not some foreign exchange students!).

After a brief introduction to the basics, we donned our toy-like cameras and ventured out into the streets of London. The brief was simple: shoot anything you like - just have fun! This seems to be the essence of Lomography as it's not at all a precise science, and encourages shooting from the hip and spontaneity. Also, the fact you're shooting on film (remember those days?) means you can't review what you've just shot, which at first seems frustrating compared to the modern style of photography we are all so accustomed to now, but is actually quite liberating as you don't waste time deliberating over details. You shoot, you move on. Simple.

With the films developed, we held our own private view down the local pub, with a judging panel formed by those who were unable to attend the workshop. So, along with Paul and Jess, Michaila (our self-decreed chief judge!) decided the winners. Drum roll please...

Mel's winning duel-frame multiple-exposure of Carnaby Street (groovy, man).

Sam's 2nd prize theatrical multiple-exposure.

Vicky's 3rd prize multi-layered multiple-exposure

(have you spotted the general theme yet?!).

Mark's abstract comment on the fall of Western society.....or just a pretty picture of a Coke can?

Jamie seemed to know exactly where in Soho to get this great shot!

Phil's homage (or should that be Lom-age) to Martin Parr.

A Wes-eyed view of London street life.

Footie Fashion

How could we let the World Cup go by without adding our own design slant to proceedings? So, on the back of our World Cup sweepstake we set the challenge for the whole studio to design a t-shirt for their selected country - creatives and non-creatives alike.

At the unveiling party we all voted for our favourites, with Akiko's 'cheesy' Swiss solution sweeping all others aside as she stormed to victory (which has proved a good omen for Japan so far, but less so for Switzerland!).

Paul and Mel (or rather Italy and Chile) were the runners up, but in true English tradition it's not the winning that counts, it's the taking part......although sadly England seemed to take this maxim a tad too literally!

The winners

Japan & North Korea make friends!

'Portugal - sometimes hot sometimes not'!

Germany & Spain enjoy a pint with North Korea

Old friends England & France

The Price of Fame

It was reported recently that Paul Rankin, Northern Irish celebrity chef, familiar from his regular appearances on TV, is also fairly big in FMCG. His Rankin Selection brand, including such products as pork sausages, soda bread and potato farls, has a turnover of £30 million per year. Coming in the week that Fred Perry announced that Amy Winehouse is designing a line of clothing, it got us thinking about the power of celebrity branding versus design.

Celebrity licenses are an awkward proposition for packaging designers – they are rarely conducive to great creativity, often not much more sophisticated than sticking a familiar face in question on the pack alongside the product itself. If this approach sells more product than our meticulously crafted designs then what does that say about the value of creativity? The reality is that celebrity is volatile, as Tiger Woods has recently proven. Celebrities are brands, and when they move into the food and drink market their brands need to be managed and protected just like any other.

Gordon Ramsay’s retail presence extends to a couple of chocolate selections, which by his own admission he does not rate. It is unlikely that the people at Kraft, surveying their newly acquired Cadbury brands, will be losing sleep. Jamie Oliver, on the other hand, has developed a portfolio of sub-brands to enable him to extend into multiple different categories, all of them a neat fit with his personality and values.

Of the top products of last year, reported in The Grocer in December, the only celebrity-endorsed brands are Lloyd Grossman in the cooking sauces category, and Ainsley Harriott Cup Soup, comfortably outsold by Batchelors. Powdered Cup Soup seems like an odd choice for a chef, but with Ainsley’s reputation for simplifying – witness his Fairy Power Spray ad campaign – there is a link. The varieties on offer are sufficiently adventurous to justify the celebrity tag. But brands like Phileas Fogg or New Covent Garden are equally well placed to guide consumers into new territory. And they come without the hassle (and price tag) of a celebrity license.

At the Grocer Food and Drink Awards, Ainsley’s Thai Chicken & Lemongrass Cup Soup, and Marco Pierre White’s Glorious, lost out to New Covent Garden’s Beef & Irish Stout in the soup category. Glorious also lost out in Chilled Savoury to Mash Direct. James Martin Belgian Chocolate Fondant Mix finished behind Mrs Crimble’s Gluten Free Bread in Bakery. The winners were selected not just based on the jury’s opinions, but also on the results of an online research programme using a consumer panel.

This would seem to suggest that genuine innovation and high-quality design can win out over celebrity endorsement. If you can combine the two, as Oliver’s has done, then you are on to a winner. But as far as Amy Winehouse branching out into other artistic endeavours goes, our response, to quote the lady in question, would have to be “No, no, no.”

A love/hate relationship? No thanks.

A few months back, we had a number of breakfast-related projects going through the studio. In one brainstorm we were debating the merits of breakfast on-the-go, and the subject of cereal bars obviously came up. One individual felt particularly strongly about the predominance of sweet variants, and the lack of a convenient on-the-go option for those, like him, who preferred their breakfast savoury. "Where", he wondered, "is the cereal bar equivalent of Marmite on toast?"

Well, now we know. It's on the shelves, in the shape of the new Marmite cereal bar. Strategically, this makes perfect sense of course, with the on-the-go market booming, and none of the other savoury snack brands having come up with a cereal bar. Theoretically, Marmite can hang on to existing consumers who are suddenly too busy to make toast in the mornings, and attract some new users who don't eat Marmite the spread but are nevertheless in the market for a savoury bar.

They were giving them out free on Marylebone Station this week, supporting a clever ad campaign featuring lots of outlandish possible Marmite products with the strapline "Have we gone too far?" Obviously we all tried them - design is hungry work. Sadly for the Marmite brand team, though, who declared boldly "Consumers really will either love it or hate it." (Daily Mirror, 25/10/09), the overwhelming reaction amongst the team was one of complete indifference.

Therein lies the problem with the kind of provocative positioning adopted by the likes of Marmite, Yorkie and Pot Noodle. The idea is that those people who are already consumers get a buzz and a certain pride out of being amongst the chosen few, and everyone else is driven to try the product by a bit of reverse psychology - if you say this is not for me, then I am jolly well going to have it. But when the product does not live up to promise, it ends up looking a little hollow.

Marmite, the spread, really does divide consumers because it is unique, unmistakeable, a bit eccentric, and above all it is potent - a little goes a long way. The unfortunate truth about the cereal bars is that they do not look any different from any other product in the category, they are tough and dry and taste vaguely of Marmite. Hardly enough to inspire extremes of emotion.

Perhaps they really have gone too far.