P002 → Packaging Design
Project 1 – Sugar Packets
The sugar packaging was inspired by my personal obsession with collecting sugar packets. I have many from across Europe and became fascinated with them while in Italy, as they were like tiny pieces of art. I used this as a springboard to incorporate my older photography from different countries into the design. To mimic the texture and abundance of granulated sugar inside, I applied halftone dots to my images.
The aim is for the designs to be special enough for others to think, I’m going to keep this—just as I once did. There are five different packages, each featuring a unique photograph, encouraging customers to collect them all.Sugar is often associated with energy, passion, and sweetness. Therefore, I used bright, powerful colours to convey a sense of vibrancy, playfulness and alertness. I also considered how other brands design sweets within packaging and how sugar brands present themselves. I found that many sugar packaging designs had a vintage aesthetic, so I wanted to challenge this with a modern feel, using bold colour choices, structured layout and contemporary typography.
Project 2 – Wine
My goal was to create a playful Italian wine brand aimed at a younger, creative audience. I drew inspiration from psychologist Wolfgang Köhler’s bouba-kiki effect, where spiky, jagged shapes (kiki) evoke sharpness, while rounded, curvy shapes (bouba) suggest softness. I used these visual motifs to reflect the wine’s flavours—sharper shapes for dry, intense wines and rounded shapes for fuller, deeper flavours. I used an old study of mine where I was considering how shapes can be used to tell a story, or create balance and drama.
Throughout the process, I considered key questions: What attracts someone to purchase a bottle? How do colours influence perceptions of taste? What makes a bottle worth keeping or photographing?For the colour palette, I focused on the final wine colour while also researching the hues present during fermentation and in raw grapes.I believe this concept has the potential to extend across a wide range of wines, creating fresh visuals while maintaining a cohesive brand identity.
I wanted the outer packaging to reflect the label design inside without directly replicating it. On the label, I used more playful words like ‘Crisp’ and ‘Light’ to evoke the wine’s character, but for the boxes, I opted for a cleaner, more straightforward approach—naming them simply ‘White Wine,’ ‘Orange Wine,’ and ‘Red Wine.’ This minimalist style ensures clarity while allowing the wines to speak for themselves. To enhance the visual appeal, I chose slightly deeper background colours, creating contrast and making the boxes more striking on the shelf. The result is a packaging design that feels cohesive yet distinctive.