Unpackaged, an organic local grocery store in North London, used design to help its local customers to be more environmentally friendly by using less wasteful packaging when they buy their supplies.
Packaging is an environmental problem because the materials that make it are often from finite resources (like oil which is used to make plastic, or trees that are turned into cardboard and sometimes not replaced with new trees), and once it’s used, packaging tends to end up on landfill sites rather than being recycled.
Unpackaged founder Catherine Conway knew working with designers would be vital to the success of her sustainable alternative to supermarket shopping, so she wrote design into her business plan and pitch for the social enterprise grant she needed to start her packaging-free grocery store.
After securing the funding, Conway worked with design agency Multistorey to develop a strong brand, an efficient refill model and prototype new ways of shopping.
Unpackaged started as a stall at Exmouth market while Conway figured out what groceries people were likely to buy loose and got feedback on the sort of issues that would put them off buying unpackaged goods. All this feedback helped Multistorey develop first the brand, and later the fixtures and fittings of a permanent shop in Islington, says Multistorey founder Rhonda Drakeford: ‘We started by creating the jar icon when Unpackaged was still a market stall business. It’s quite a challenge to brand something that removes the very thing that is the usual vehicle for branding – packaging. And because Cath initially sold only from market stalls it was even hard to brand with signage.’
Design for more than an eco brand
Drakeford says Unpackaged needed a brand identity that would pack an eco-friendly punch but also counteract preconceptions that self serve stores were bargain basements and that sustainability was all about knitted carrier bags and chairs made out of old bottles. A classic glass jar provided inspiration for the Unpackaged logo which uses a simple outline and modern typeface to make the idea of reusing packaging appealing for a 21st century customer.
Working with Multistorey was really exciting says Conway because they translated her ideas of running a hippy co-op into a brand that’s relevant today. And she’s happy to have focused on employing designers from the start because it helped establish Unpackaged as a business that uses innovative solutions to environmental problems. ‘Quite a lot of my initial money went on branding work and on leaflets etc,’ says Conway, ‘But everything we’ve produced from the start has been not wasteful. Everything doubles up as something else. The flyers and invites are printed on bits of old cereal boxes. And when we moved from the stall to the shop I had lots of business cards left and they were stapled together and made into Unpackaged loyalty cards.’
As they worked on promotional print for Unpackaged, Multistorey created a consistent visual language for the firm which helps Conway communicate how the concept works. ‘We designed a flyer that uses icons with the same proportions as the Unpackaged jar to explain how the new shopping concept works. The “weigh, pay, save” process is illustrated with a set of scales, an old-fashioned till and coin purse. Once Cath moved from the market stall into the shop we put larger versions of these icons in gold foil on the door so everyone who enters the shop can easily figure out how it works.’
While moving Unpackaged into a shop meant the new shopping style had proved popular and that people understood it, the designer’s job wasn’t getting any easier.
The Unpackaged brand
A classic glass storage jar inspired the Unpackaged logo.
Unpackaged flyers are printed on recycled paper using vegetable inks where possible.
Flyers advertising Unpackaged are printed in gold foiling on bits of old cereal packets.
Unpackaged sells only reusable packaging like these zip up plastic bags which customers fill themselves, get weighed by the till and pay for, saving 50p every time they reuse any bit of packaging.