Tea Packaging

For my Year 3 Semester 1 project last year I chose to create some tea packaging for my manager at my part time job. This gave myself 12 weeks to research, set a brief, create mock designs and the final design. This gave the opportunity to use my passion of tea and of packaging design in order to complete this project. During the twelve weeks I did a lot of research however when it came to creating the actual packaging I was overwhelmed with the task in hand with myself over thinking every step of the design process. I felt this lead to my final piece of work not up to my usual standard in which I am disappointed with. However as I am a perfectionist I will never settle for something until I am happy so I have now the chance to tweak the brief and redo my tea packaging design.

Old Packaging Design 

As my portfolio of all my work for this project is over 46 pages I have decided to include some snippets of the work to help show the background of my idea and the process.

Project Overview

I have been asked by the manager to design two types of packaging for a black and a green loose leaf tea that is sold in the store. This was originally set as a challenge for her to see my design skills as she was intrigued and to show what I have learnt in my product knowledge at work. The brief was open in that I had the choice of material, shape, colour scheme, content, graphics and the actual product. However after some research i found that my packaging was required by laws in the UK must be easy to read, have the best before date, weight of the product, how to use the product. list any warnings and not be misleading. 

Mandatory information and graphics

Due to the laws in the UK on food labelling and packaging the following information will feature on my design:

-      Product name

This will tell the consumer what product is inside the packaging. 

-      Use by Date and Batch code

This will tell the consumer when the product will expire, warning them when the product will lose its freshness. The batch code will help if there are any problems with the tea such as it the quality,  the batch number will help identify if it was that tea which was produced at the time or if it is a one off case.

-      Where it was packed

As the product will have information about the history and the origin of the tea, it is best to put where it was packed so they are not mislead.

-      Weight of product

The weight of the product will be displayed on the front to inform customers how much loose-leaf tea it contains.

-      How to brew

This will be an instruction on how to brew the tea either with a teapot or in a cup to make sure the consumer get the most out of the product.

-      Contact Details

The packaging will have the contact details on, for the consumer to get in contact of there is a problem with the tea, any feedback or suggestions to help improve the tea.

-      Ingredients

As they are only one ingredient that is used in the tea i have chosen to still contain this information on the packaging to not mislead the consumer.

Below is a list of all the other content and graphics that I will add to the design that is not lawfully needed:

-      Barcode

 This will be on the bottom of the packaging to make it easier to scan when the product is being bought.

-      Recyclable symbols

As other packaging has recyclable symbols I felt it is best to follow in their lead, as more consumers are aware with recycling.

-      Logo

This will be on the packaging to make it easier for the consumer to recognise the brand rather than just relying on the look.

-      History of company

Currently the history of the company is on all of the product as this helps emphasis the passion of the company and offers them an insight into the history.

-      History of tea

This will be on the back of the packaging in order to educate the consumer about the history of that particular tea in order for them to build a connection.

Packaging Analysis

Mind Map

Mood board

Colour Scheme

The colour swatches have been chosen by using a website where you get to choose the first colour then it helps you choose the contrasting colour. I chose for both designs to use contrasting colours as I felt that it would give the packaging an edgy modern look which the current company packaging lacks. The blue and orange palette is the colour scheme for the black tea whilst the green and pink is the scheme for the green tea.

Layout

Layout with sides

Layout dimensions 

Layout on computer

Mock Designs

Here below is the mock designs for the cannon and the packaging of the green tea. 

Cannon

Hand Drawn

Computer Sketch

Final Cannon

Packaging

Design 1

Design 2

Design 3

Final Designs

Here are the final designs of both the black and green tea. 

Black Tea

Green Tea

In the next couple of days I shall do another post about the updated versions of my tea packaging. 

Brand Guidelines

Here are my brand guidelines that I created for this blog which was part of my coursework for last    year in semester two. I created the guidelines to go with my social media campaign to make sure that it all kept with the same theme. 

2013 Goals

Resolution is a term that I am not keen on. In previous years I have had new years resolutions, that I had hoped that I would stick to, however I always seemed to lose interest. I feel that is partly due to the fact of the pressure and that in the middle of January there is always a new report saying that most people have given up on their own resolutions, so I start to think what is the point. Instead this year I have changed the word to goals as I feel this sounds more achievable and not so scary. I have tried not to have goals that I knew that I wouldn't achieve. I have made my personal goals quite easy to help improve my design work and my life. I have chosen ten goals although I feel that I won't complete all of them but if I have at least accomplished three of them, then I will know that 2013 will have been a success.

1. Life after University

As I start my final year of my course this year I feel that it is time to start thinking about what I want to do after university. There are already two ideas of what I could do, these are either stay on and complete a MA in Digital Design or go into the industry. If I was going to go into the industry I feel that I should start brainstorming ideas of what area I want to go in. I feel that I have been putting off my decision as I felt it was still too early, however the rest of my housemates already know what job they want and how they will get there.

2. Take a photo everyday

Last year I created a bucket list of 100 things I want to do before I die. All of these tasks were to make sure I live a full life. One of the tasks on the list is to take a photo everyday for a year, I felt this would challenge me with a chance of some photo's to go into my portfolio. The photo's will be random with one day it featuring a landscape image and the next something that I had done during the day. This is a chance for me to take more photo's and show off my skills. If you want to follow my progress I have set up a Flickr account Photo of the Day 2013.

New Dawn, New Start- Day 1

3. Get a work placement

For the final year of my course it is advised that I get a work placement from a local firm. I feel that loads of students will start applying March time so I need to start now if I want a place. I feel that I will get many benefits from the placement, not only will it look good on my CV but I will get experience on how a design company runs. I have learnt at university how the design process works and was able to put it into practice last semester with a live client however I feel that seeing it done in real life will be different. I feel that a placement might help me decide where I want to work in a design company.

4. Achieve grade 2:1 in Year 2

I want to graduate my course with a First degree however at the end of this year my aim is to get a 2:1. Last semester I spent most my time doing university work and making sure I was ahead of my classmates as if I had down anything wrong I could go back and redo it. I want nothing less than a 2:1 as I feel it will show me it was worth the time spent and that I could go on and get a First.

5. Maintain my fitness

At the end of summer last year I suddenly became very health conscious resulting in some changes in my life. After a while the effects began to show which made me feel brilliant. During the christmas period I have still tried to be healthy but allowed myself some slack as it was the holidays. I am now ready to get back into the lifestyle I had at the end of last year.

6. Do a 5K charity race in less than 45 mins

This year I want to do the 5k run Race for Life as it is a charity close to home. I previously did it in 2010 with my finishing time of 58 minutes with no truing before hand, I also applied to do it last year but sprained my ankle the day before the race meaning I had to pull out whilst my friend ran by herself. This year I want to do it again but beat my previous time by 13 minutes. I shall start training early February for the race which is normally in July. The training will also help me with number 5 of my goals.

7. Learn to drive

I started to learn to drive when I just turned 17 but that was over 2 years ago now and I wished that I stuck with it. I have some money saved up so I can learn to drive over the summer and hopefully be ready for a driving test near the time I go back to uni. Seeing as when I am home I live in the middle of nowhere relying on my dad and friends for lifts I feel that I should become independent.

8. Do more designs

I want to create at least one design a month with some mock designs each week. I wanted this on my goals as I feel it will benefit me as I can add all the work into my portfolio and will help showcase my work at the End of Year show in March.

9. At least one blog post a month

Last semester I was very lazy with my blog. Seeing as I had a lot of work given to me I kept putting of posting on my blog with the excuse that I would do it next week. I felt that if I had this as one of my goals I would make my blog look relevant and up-to-date not abandoned like it has done.

10. Go on holiday

When I went to Barcelona last year I seemed to realise what I was missing. This was going abroad, I loved the different culture around me from the trip last year I was left motivated to do more design work and take photographs where as before I had to force myself.