"Robot-food shows a new side to their branding and packaging talents by branching into the pet food industry with 'My Cat Loves'.
The recently formed branding agency has designed an almost familiar identity, unique in the market, with subtle shelf shout to back up the flavours. The product is intended to appeal to cat owners in humour as much as their cats' in taste. The packaging eludes to the 1930’s, combining tri-colour print over a traditional paper packet.
“I’ve tried almost every complete cat food on the supermarket shelf, but my cat continues to bring in blackbirds and mice to fill his bowl. “We must listen to the requirements of the end consumer!” says commercial director Simon Forster.
Looking back to a time before major pet food companies were established, what flavours would be the obvious choices for the cat? In the pre-mid 1900’s as cat flaps grew in popularity, would cats have really dragged turkeys, lamb and cattle into the house?
Perhaps if My Cat Loves had been established at that point, some of the larger pet food companies around today wouldn’t have had a look in."
Yiying Lu is an illustrator and designer from Sydney Australia (also known as the Twitter Fail Whale creator). She worked with the Florida-based company to create this interesting patent-pending packaging for nootie pet shampoo and fragrances. I received an email this morning that the products were finished and launching today at the nootie site. Here's what Yiying had to say about the thought behind the design:
"This branding & packaging
design is aiming to deliver new innovative & fresh life style
products: The new products here are Shampoo and Daily Spritz
combination bottle which are revolutionary as they are the first ever
Pet Shampoo & Daily Spritz in one bottle.
The top portion contains shampoo for washing the pet, while the
bottom contains a daily spritz that moisturizes and helps maintain the
fresh scent between washes. Nootie’s state of the art patent pending
bottle snaps together for convenience as well as saving space in
consumer’s closet.
The products come in four exciting fragrances Japanese Cherry
Blossom, Sweet Pea & Vanilla, Warm Vanilla Cookie & Cucumber
Melon; which were also illustrated / designed by me.
My idea behind the package design is: Form follows both Fun + Functionality."
See a few more after the jump.
Branding, Copywriting, and Packaging design for the TastyBone range of dog toys and edibles, designed by UK based ObjectiveStudio:
"A modern twist on traditional dog packaging with an uncluttered and stylish identity. The design of the packaging sets a new standard in its market.
Personality has been injected into the brand with a playful tone of voice and the simple typographical layout and clear labeling have helped increase product sales by 400%."
More images after the jump.
Loving the minimal packaging/shipper box for ModKat:
All good things must come to an end, and so we close this series of FIT graduate work with these last five.
1. Chelsea Market Comestibles for Canines by Rebecca Williams:
"Chelsea Market Comestible for Canines, super premium dog food inspired by Chuck the basset hound."
2. Syn by Sarai Robledo:
"SYN is the bad boy of all drinks. It's an absinthe drink inspired by the nickname it was given, "The Green Fairy". The different names for the flavors indicate the different kind of fairies they are."
3. I Hate It When by Stefanie Stalder:
"A line of garbage bags that stands out among the rest on shelf. The emphasis is placed on the function of the bag, which is supported by the image. The overall brand look, including the choice of white, suggests a refreshing take on the not so pleasant topic of garbage."
4. Sutter Home Family Vineyard by Stephanie Hiser:
"This is a typical, mass-market wine brought to life with bold colors and clean lines while still holding onto family charm."
5. B. Men by Samira Villamor:
"A men's line of health & beauty products that captures a classic essence while also capturing the modern man."
Further work by upcoming grads of the Fashion Institute of Technology's graphic design program.
1. Soil Salvation by Hayley Hackett:
"Soil Salvation is a line of gardening products aimed to encourage consumers to rethink the meaning of gardening. With the use of photography on a sky background, the package delivers the environment you experience while gardening."
2. Chelsea Market Branding by Hiromi Tatsuta:
"Branding the Chelsea Market: Modern and bold but friendly coffee packaging for espresso or cappuccino. The product line might be a souvenir from NYC or bought for home use."
3. Bumbina by Janine Gomez:
"This brand personality expresses the essence of babyhood - a gentle purity that springs from a fresh start. Bumbina aims to help provide moms and dads with more ecologically-designed options for their baby changing needs, so they can make better choices that shape everyone's future."
4. Surf Troll by Jason Maysonet:
"The graphics are inspired by people who live out of their cars searching for the perfect wave."
5. Chelsea Market Exotic Grains Pasta by Joyce Liao:
"This line of pasta for Chelsea Market is made out of exotic grains which are healthier, more nutritious, and gluten-free. The logo is designed to reflect New York's Chelsea Market's architecturally inspired and industrial chic personality."
6. Beebe by Kei Hayashi:
"Beebe is a line of organic dog food, dog cookies, and dog breath mints with the added benefit of energy supplements."
Entrepreneur and publisher Henerietta Morrison came to Albion with a new idea. Dog food (and cat food). But not any old dog food. Dog food that is actually made from good cuts of meat and nice healthy veggies for your dog. All stuff that makes them smell better and live longer. No more slurry, ash or bits of carcass.
I reasoned a couple of things:
1. Your dog is part of the family so why would you feed them bits of hoof.
2. This stuff was proper pet food. The way it should be.So after developing the strategy of “Proper Pet Food”. We used Henrietta’s own dog, Lily, as the starting point (after all she is the inspiration for the product in the first place). I then worked with Natalie Ranger and Joe Holt to create a new dog food brand for her.
We wanted it to feel modern but have a timelessness to it. Something that says: “The food in this tin is quality” without resorting to pictures of the food or the usual big dog face.
After visiting an exhibition of hers we then asked illustrator Petra Borner to take our concept and produce a lovely illustration for it (as she has a nice down to earth wood cut style). Which she did. We then coloured each flavour, using certain colours to stand for certain foods, developed a logo and some organic icons for it.
We created a little country to the city story on the packaging and made sure it was not like any other dog food on the shelf. Joe developed the illustration so it ran continuously around the tin. It was then printed in water-based inks on lovely recycled stock
It was a fun project and I think we ended up with something category breaking. It’s now being sold in over 20 outlets, and sold over 70,000 units in the first 7 weeks. We’re now just holding out for being able to create a website aimed directly at dogs next!
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