Rive Gauche is a hypothetical brand specializing in high end fragrant reed diffusers. ‘Vivid Lavande’ is named after the French-inspired Lavender scent which is designed to fill your home with a long lasting scent using only the finest fragrances, essential oils and natural diffusers. The exterior of the box was originally going to be in matte black however the gold omnicrom foil didn’t stick too well. Omnicrom works super well on glossy paper but problem is, there’s no printable black glossy paper anywhere in Melbourne. In the end I thought the black exterior reached a dead end and I used gold paper instead. I was actually happier with the gold than the black. This was the last uni project for our folios and I’m glad it was the last because out of everything we’ve done the last 3 years, this one had the most blood, sweat and tears yet it’s my favorite packaging piece to date.
It was a bit of math, engineering and of course, money. The box is made of a combination of wood and pasteboard then glued together with PVA glue and finally covered in black wrapping paper (used jac paper to apply the paper to the box). The glass, reeds and refill were sourced from an online supplier. More photos will be added to my website late next month after my USA trip.
What you’re about to see is a bunch of lime green-dominant photos that I directed and took myself. No need for ultra pro studio equipment, all you need is a standard DSLR, an external flash and some green paper. I say external flash because it creates THE perfect exposure plus it’s handy when you don’t have good lighting in the room. I usually shoot product photos with white backgrounds but not this time. You can’t deny that lime green is a pretty color!
I mentioned in the last post that I was working on a rebranding project for Orgran and I’m proud to say that it’s done! One was in plastic packaging and the other was in a box and both had to be two different products, I chose a muffin mix and penne pasta. Along with designing the new logo, another big part of the rebranding process was to get involved with food styling and food photography. I tried my best to cook up a 5 star pasta dish and bake a decent batch of muffins, the end result wasn’t too bad actually and it surprisingly tasted good (this is coming from someone who doesn’t cook at all!).
The packaging had to include a photo of the product and what influenced me to go with the green backdrop was my logo which also has green in it. It’s also differentiating the brand from its competitors; it’s not uncommon to see white backgrounds for a lot of Orgran’s competitors and other food products. I truly think green reflects the brand’s personality and their vision.
The first of my mock ups were still in its early days, it took me 3 trial prints of each product before I got to the finals. The pasta box is similar to the shape of a milk carton and the muffin mix plastic version is packed like a folded bag. Simple vectors are becoming a thing for me this year after working on the S&W project. I think it’s about time to update the original graphics for the instructions of the muffin mix.
And this is the original design as seen on the back of their current muffin mix.
About 3 weeks worth of ideation work and crafting, it was nothing but a solid learning experience.
I’m breaking the fashion posts for now and moving onto something related to my current work for Orgran. With just one week away from the deadline the only thing that’s left for me is to print my proposed package designs and assemble them to physical mock ups. Orgran is a healthy living brand that specializes in gluten free food products and they’ve been around for years, so rebranding their entire image is a challenge, but a good one of course. I love food (who doesn’t?) and I love design…it makes sense that this is my kinda challenge and I especially love love love clever food packaging. This is my first corporate food branding task thanks to RMIT for this incredible opportunity. My One By Four Macarons design doesn’t count because that was just a made-up brand for a uni project. I’ll post more about my Orgran task next week! For now I want to update you on the endless amount of food packaging inspiration I found during my research for Orgran. It was tough deciding which ones to include in this post!
A right-brainer by day and occasional blogger by night, you've landed on a place where I live and breathe all things art, design, culture and fashion. You'll find me documenting my life in the creative field, endless travels with friends and family and a bit of food.