F&M Labels

Initial Idea
As part of the brief we were asked to design the packaging for three food products and one drink product for the hamper. In keeping with my theme I came up with some unusual but not too ridiculous options: Orange Crisps, Sweet Violet Biscuits, Dandelion Chocolate and Cucumber Soda. Believe it or not all of these products already exist.
Anyway in terms of the label designs I took some inspiration from the exciting world of vintage seed packets...Heres what I came up with

 

Penguin Book Cover Competition

My entry for this years penguin prize, bit rushed but happy enough with the outcome.

F&M Identity

A Theme within a Theme.

As I was saying in an earlier post I decided to choose the theme of Botanist for this project, however one of our first tasks was to develop a theme based within the theme.....pretty confusing when said aloud but not really. My initial ideas had a fairly letargic feel to them:  "Garden Party Hamper", "The Secret Garden Hamper" and "The Gardeners Hamper" were examples.

Then good old Edward Bawden popped up with some well timed inspiration. If you scroll down a few posts you'll see an illustration with the caption "invalid goods", I found this image during the research phase and these words sparked an idea to develop a hamper with really unusual products. All of a sudden "The Secret Garden Hamper" began to make much more sense. I decided to develop such a hamper and use a tagline along the lines of "Indulge in the Mysteries of the Secret Garden" 

Pretty good huh?

Identity

Option 1

Illustrated style logo.

I actually really like this one but just wasnt sure if it could work across the range of products we needed to develop. I think I might still use the layout for an illustration later in the project.

Rejected

 

Option 2
Badge Logo.
Contemporary vintage.... Based on the vintage style logos which have come back into fashion with the evolution of hipster culture.
Has the potential to work well across the range of products and its versatility would of allowed me to experimental with the packaging.
When it came down to it, it just didnt fit the F&M tone of voice.
Rejected

Option 3
Trellis Logo.
Developed from foliage style patterns and the idea of a gate opening into the "Secret Garden"........ Actually it kind of  just turned up without much thought and as a result of messing around with some shapes, but it works. Has an elegant tone of voice and is pretty unique in term of aesthetics.
Accepted

F&M Inspiration

Ok so there's two initial areas of note that influenced my direction for this project. First of all a quick internet search of 'F&M illustration' led me to discover the association between the store and the work of the illustrator and printer Edward Bawden. This gave me real hope that I could adapt my style to the project without fear of my tutor announcing it out of tune with the stores tone of voice. Also I must admit up until this point, and as an Irishman, I was feeling a bit out of my comfort zone designing a hamper for HRH's local grocery store..

Secondly I focused on a target audience early on. I decided to aim the hamper at the younger generation who have embraced organic living, enjoy gardening and cooking and most of all love entertaining. I guess you could call them Foodsters (apose to Foodies). ( Btw: I think I kind of cheated a bit here as I really just based the target market on that of the Kinfolk magazine seen above).

Never the less my initial discovery and focused approach really set the tone for this project.

Fortnum & Mason Brief Outline

Edward Bawden Illustration

For my 'Final Major Project', I have to design a hamper for the famous Fortnum & Mason store in Picadilly London. The brief required us to pick from a list of themes including Explorer, Botanist, Aviator and a few other ones I cant quite remember. Anyway I have picked Botanist, I think its an interesting one with loads of room to develop my skills as an illustrator. I'm about half way through the project now so I have most of the research done and have just started developing some ideas, over the next few posts I'll try and get you up to date with how it has developed so far...