Having been chosen by Vitacress to develop the first packaging for its new consumer range of Baby Leaf Salads, Financial Designs’ first job was to research supermarket shelves to gauge how other brands communicate premium quality through design.
With no budget for consumer research or focus groups, Ludwig Haskins of Financial Designs had to rely on his own design expertise and personal judgement, setting out a series of design rules for the Vitacress brand.
‘All other bagged salads came in clear bags carrying hard to read type,’ says Haskins. ‘We decided that, in an aisle of green produce, a white background should be used to provide a fresh, clean canvas for text and illustration. This would sit in the upper half of the bag – allowing the consumer to see some of what was inside, while covering the empty space above the salad.’
Despite its widespread use on modern food packaging, photography was dismissed in favour of illustration. ‘If a photograph of a raw product is shown next to an actual raw product, there will always be a mismatch between the two,’ explains Haskins. ‘Instead, the leaf outlines for the different varieties of salad used in each bag provided clear inspiration for an illustration that would become a simple icon to differentiate Vitacress from rival products on the shelf.’
Another rule was that matt varnish should be applied to the opaque areas of the packaging, leaving the natural film gloss on the transparent areas used for viewing the product inside. This made the typography more legible and added a premium silky feel to the packaging. ‘Full gloss packaging under bright lighting leads to a sea of shiny packs that look like cheap sweets,’ explains Haskins.
His simple yet sophisticated design quickly won Vitacress over. ‘Ludwig presented brief sketches with one idea mocked up,’ says Pais. ‘We knew it was right instantly. We had no consumer research to back this up, but we felt it was worth taking the risk because the idea was completely new. Focus groups can be useful, but should not dictate design fundamentals – well informed risks and intuition often work better.’
