Early concepts

Here are my rough early concepts, I've designed for the packaging for Wye Valley and Legges.

The direction I wanted to take my designs in was a very rustic, stylisied package, bearing in mind the clients wanted a mature yet modern design.

Here are my initial rough concepts and annotations. Very rough but where a lot of my ideas and designs generated from.

I then began to develop my rough sketches into more refined, clear designs. Delivering a more clear concise vision of my ideas. The screens of my designs contain annotations, explaining ideas and features but i'll just give a brief overview of each concept.

Idea Two

Idea Two. My thinking behind this idea was very thematic. I looked briefly into the production of traditional ales. I wanted a design that would relate to the products being advertised so I played around with a cask concept. The idea is very simple but captures the mature, stylised, rustic characteristics I wanted to portray with my packaging. I began toying with the idea of crafting the cask from wood, tied with string, in the generic style of an upright cask that would come apart in the center to reveal the products packed in with straw.(taking in consideration the eco requirements of the brief). I would have used carvings to add detail to the package for example carving the logos of both Legges and Wye into the base and top of the cask. However I encountered a couple of problems with this initial concept. 

(i) You wouldn't be able to view the products inside so needed some sort of way to view the products.

(ii) It would still be quite a large package on the shelf. This needed to be addressed. 

Bearing this in mind I developed the concept further. Instead of the packaging as a standard upright cask. Why not have the cask appearing as if it's on its side, giving the impression you are looking straight down the cask. Also the thickness of the cask, packaging would only be deep enough to house the ales. The size and shape similar to a cheese wheel. There is really no need of having a massive package (cask) that will only be housing three products, this would result in a waste of shelf space and production costs. This also gave me the idea that on the shelf of the store or where ever they could be displayed, you could stack the casks so that it gives the impression they are being housed in an old fashioned brewery. On the shelf this could look very attractive and effective and stand out among the generic packaging. I also added some windows to the design in order for the customers to be able to view the actual ales. Here is a picture to perhaps explain better my vision of how the packaging could look on the shelf.

This concept, design I believe has massive potential for development.

Idea three & Four

Idea three. If i'm being honest is probably my least favorite out of the five ideas. It's a wooden design, quite simple, more of a wooden frame that would house the three products in slots on the base. The main attribute of this packaging would be to carve and craft stylistic illustrations into the wood. I do believe this idea/concept could be developed and does have potential however there are other designs I feel have more potential going forward.

Idea four. A package constructed purely out of one cardboard net that would use no glue or adhesives to hold together. The premise isn't that original but I believe with the design, I'd be able to be quite creative with the artwork and incorporate some nice illustrations and typographic designs on the packaging. Out of my five designs I feel that this concept is the most commercial, dare I say it, safe bet and could easily envisage being stocked alongside beers and ales in supermarkets but doesn't capture the rustic characteristics I want in my packaging.

Idea One

Idea one, alongside two is my favorite concept. It's very simple, yet I feel that works in the designs favour. The design emanates a rustic, traditional package, yet still has that modern edge. For the materials i'm torn between using wood and cardboard each would bring something different and each with advantages/disadvantages. That's something I certainly need to address with further development of this idea. The premise is a box, tied with string. The products would be housed inside another box that would simply slide out. Similar to my cask idea I felt the need to add windows to view the products but it came to my attention you just couldn't have a window without positioning, housing the products in a set position inside as they may not align with the windows. To combat this as the sketches show, I would house the products in small compartment so they wouldn't move inside package and so that the labels of the ale's would align with the window.

This concept was very much inspired by the beautiful, rustic packaging range of Askinosie Chocolate.

Something was missing though with the design, it was too simple and related too much to Askinosie's packaging range, the packaging needed its own personality. I began to play around with illustrations that could be used on the packaging. Adding more character and artistic flair to the package. I looked into linking my illustrations to the ales and the production. This is where I got the idea of using hops vines and barley which would look very attractive and 'pretty' on the front of the packaging. If I were to use wood I could carve the illustrations in, if cardboard I could use vegetable inks, keeping the Eco friendly requirements of the brief in mind.

I began to develop this idea further as you can see. I thought about possibly using the illustrations, merging them into windows for the ales instead of a generic cut out square. I could illustrate the vines and barley in a way so the leaves for example could act as a window for the products. Could look really effective and certainly is something i'm going to look at in greater detail as I develop and improve this idea. Considering packing in a recipe, cook book, for ale/food recopies with this idea. I feel it would compliment and refine the overall package.

Idea Five

My next stage of development is take forward the design I believe has the most potential and develop these ideas and designs with more detailed sketches and concepts. One thing I need to look at is the sustainability of the package and possibly include something packed in with the products however I don't just want to do this for the sake of it and it takes away from the package as a whole.