Food Packaging

Since the start of the semester we have been doing a project on food packaging. That's a whole 3 months on one project... crazy. Now that the project is drawing to an end I am enjoying it more. All the final designs are coming together at long last and the last minute pressure is making sure that I get everything done. I would have preferred to have had a smaller time scale for this project because I enjoy creating a lot of output in a short time. However I suppose the long process has been good because I have never done any packaging design before and it has opened my eyes to the packaging design world through research and trying out techniques. I have came across the amazing packaging website thedieline.com and I have started paying more attention to how the food that I buy is packaged.

As the brief was to come up with a revolutionary new food source using the food and material that we were given I came up with Mustard Food Perfume as my food was mustard and my material smoke. So the concept is; mustard flavouring on your food in a puff of smoke! My goal was to approach the packaging design in a sustainable and environmentally friendly way and at the same time have a bit of fun. So I used all recyclable materials and used exciting colours that worked well together but still related to mustard. I created an aluminum bottle for my mustard food perfume and a cardboard box to package it. The bottle is a pyramid shape and the box echoes this so that it fits in perfectly (no need for extra resources to make a larger, cumbersome box.) The bottle itself is very simple, the body is shiny aluminum to fit in with the clean look of the modern kitchen and the shiny utensils and pots, the nozzle is yellow to connect with the yellow on the box and advertising and to signify that it is a mustard flavour. As there is no information on the bottle all the important info is on the box and in the booklet provided with it. I have made the graphics fun and attractive so that the consumer will not mind having the booklet and box lying around so that they can look at the information. The box is easily opened and closed so the user can pop the bottle back in if they wish.

I also came up with the idea that the product can be refilled, so instead of buying many mustard perfumes you only need to buy it once and then when it's finished you can take it back to the refill station at the supermarket, pop in a pound and refill your durable and sustainable aluminum bottle. Creating less waste! This is all explained in the booklet. The final name that I decided on for the product is Mustardo's.

We have now been told that we are to present our final product by means of a Dragons Dens style presentation with judges and all. I find this extremely exciting and hopefully this week I will make an advert to present with the rest of my work.