Clipper Tea
Clipper Tea was really interesting to research as they have taken a very illustrative yet typography based approach to their packaging. They use bold colours based on the ingredients on the flavour of tea, and also tailor their illustrations on the packaging based on the flavour as well, making each flavour individual and personalised, making them much more recognisable on a shelf. Each type of packaging features the tea cup and saucer illustration, which houses the flavour of the tea. This illustration helps to hold the collection together, and is a common similarity between all packaging for Clipper Tea, and helps you recognise the packaging as being for Clipper by the teacup.
The information on the back of the packaging was surprisingly all text, however made to look like a piece of artwork through the use of varying sizes of type and the combined use of two different typefaces. This makes the boring information more interesting to read and also make it look less dull as well.
What's surprising is that Clipper Tea is also really reasonably priced, considering it's beautiful packaging and it's emphasis on using sustainable sources for it's products and packaging, as competitors such as Teapigs and Pukka tea are much more expensive.
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Pukka Tea
Pukka Tea takes on a similar approach to Clipper Tea in the pattern and front of box design that it uses. Similarly the pattern and colours are related to the flavour of the tea, with the brand name and flavour encased by the pattern. They also take on a similarly bold and bright appearance, standing out on the shelf by through this. However, the difference is that this pattern is less illustrative and more vectorised, with shapes appearing cleaner than Clipper, giving it less of a homey feel. Also, on the back the emphasis isn't on making it look 'pretty' but simply getting the information across that needs to be, with it being very text heavy and unappealing to read, this really puts you off. This makes me think that Pukka Tea is a much more commercialised brand than Clipper Tea, and perhaps doesn't have the same level as personalisation.
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Teapigs
Teapigs was an interesting one to research having come from Clipper and Pukka Tea, as they take on a very different aesthetic, whilst still having similar brand values. The use of brown cardboard as packing immediately reinforces their sustainability value, as brown cardboard is associated with being more natural, environmentally friendly and recyclable. The use of a different coloured illustration also helps to differentiate between the different flavours, however I'm not sure how some of the illustrations match up with the flavours, such as the windmill, but it makes you intrigued regardless. The back of the packaging fits somewhere in between Clipper and Pukka Tea, as it includes interesting illustrations on how to make the perfect cup, however still as a fair amount of text. Although this text is broken up into reasonable portions and isn't super small which helps to make it look less daunting to read.
Teapigs also branch out into more health related and 'trendy' products such as matcha powder and soft drinks, taking on a 'greener' aesthetic to reflect the target audience and the change in product. This is really interesting to see how the brand is adapted for the different products and target audiences, and is something to take into consideration when creating our nootropics brand.
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Whittard
Whittard is a more upmarket tea and coffee brand, which is definitely reflected in the packaging, even though they take a similar approach to Clipper and Pukka Tea with the use of a pattern across their instant tea range. This pattern uses a more watercolour, illustrative yet detailed approach, one which you could see applied to wallpaper (in a good way). Instead of fitting the flavour around the pattern, Whittard places it in a banner across the bottom or in a square/rectangular box across the middle, creating a cleaner appearance and making it legible against the busy background.
Being an more upmarket brand, Whittard reflects this through packaging some of it's products in metal tins also covered in an interesting and appropriate pattern, which makes the brand stand out against other competitors. Whittard also sells loose leaf tea in a glass jar as well, so you can choose exactly how much tea you'd like, which again stands the brand out as being more upmarket.
Whittard's products can also be bought in gift boxes, housing a selection of teas or coffees, which act as a great present. Whilst the products themselves are covered in beautiful pattern, the boxes are left rather simple and plain in comparison, which allows the products to stand out, rather than getting lost in the box. This is something to take into consideration if we decide to make a gift box for our products.
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Starbucks Teavana
This packaging and branding is probably one of my favourites, as it completely contrasts with the idea of a pattern for packaging, and takes on a much more modern, almost rebellious appearance, one which is really fresh and in keeping with the times.
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| The flavours of the teas are still reflected in the colours used for the packaging, only this way using an abstract watercolour, tie dye print, with the brand name Teavana in the white section of the print, allowing it to stand out. The text is a bold sans serif, making it appear very contemporary, whilst ensuring it is legible against the vibrant print background. |
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| I'm not sure what this product is, but it is a great idea to produce the packaging in this shape, allowing you to build and create objects with the boxes. This also makes it more interesting than your standard square tea box. |
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| Tins are used to house one type of product (loose leaf tea?), which are something you'd be much more likely to showcase on a shelf rather than tucking away in a cupboard, and also being in they are reusable and you could keep them to repurpose after using up all the tea, which not only makes them practical and environmentally friendly, it also means that Teavana will continue to be promoted and advertised after the product has ran out. |
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| Another great use of tins to house a Teavana product, again, being used in a similar way to the previous photograph, only taking on a shorter, stubbier, cuter appearance, making you want to buy a couple of different colours to stack them. |
In the previous two photographs, the tea is photographed next to the packaging and tea sachet, in a appropriately shapes/styled glass, which makes consumers think that they could have this, this could be their morning wake up, as it is almost advertising a lifestyle or a way of living, being very aesthetically appealing, these photos show you the whole process from packaging to end product, whilst also showcasing how the colour on the box reflects the colour of the tea.
The above two photographs make Teavana into artwork almost, into colour swatches, which highlights the different shades and flavours of the tea, but also shows it in it's natural form, emphasising the naturalness and purity of the tea and it's ingredients, whilst also appearing very compositionally aesthetically pleasing.
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| this is a really clever piece of advertising, as it shows you exactly what is in the tea, the exact ingredients, which not only makes for a great aesthetic, but also emphasises the teas natural qualities, how they use real ingredients and not artificial substances. |
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| Great contrasting colours, highlighting the variety of Teavana, and how there's a tea for everyone. |
T2
T2 was a bit of an unusual one, as it partially took on a very clinical, typographic approach to packaging, with limited edition or special products having a more pattern based, illustrative based packaging. What was interesting was how the brand name T2 was used to form the pattern on the sizes of the packaging, as from afar it just looks like a geometric pattern, however once you get close you can see it's just the brand name repeated. The use of the pattern for the matcha flavour tins was something that I found very appealing, however when the text was applied over the top it made it a little difficult to read. This is something that should be watched out for when we come to designing our packaging, to ensure the pattern doesn't take over from the content and text.
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Taylors
Taylors Tea took on a minimalist, very British, style of packaging, which used bold colours to differentiate between the flavours, with a single photograph of the ingredients being the only illustration on the packaging. This made the brand appear more refined and knowledgable compared to those who used patterns for their packaging, as the simplistic style suggested they didn't need a whole range of illustrations to stand out. The back side was also almost identical to the front, meaning that if you plced it the wrong way round on the shelf the brand would still be clear, however this did confuse me a little as to which way round it was supposed to go.
Primary Research
Morrison's The Best
This tea brand was one of the only ones which used photography for it's packaging, which definitely made it stand out from it's competitors. Photographing the ingredients used to make the tea and the tea itself gives consumers a really clear insight into what's actually in the tea and what it actually looks like as well, and also creates a colour palette for the packaging which helps differentiate between the different flavours. It has took on a similar style to that of Teapigs in its packaging shape, with a cut out on the front to display the loose leaf teabags, which emphasises its natural qualities. Compared to Clipper Tea, the information on the back isn't very inspiring to read, however they keep text to a minimal so as not to scare customers away.
Primary Research
Tetley
Tetley Tea was one of the only tea brands I found which produced tea flavours with added vitamins, with the sole purpose of boosting your immune system and making you feel less tired, which is the closest to what our nootropics tea brand is trying to achieve. However the packaging for these takes on almost a children's medicine approach, looking quite similar in style to Bassetts multivitamins (Figure 1). The packaging is also very text heavy as well, which doesn't incite you to want to read it, and is also a little off putting. A great design quality to this packaging though is that on one side if you lay it flat on it's side it could be the front of the box, which means you can stack them different ways and still be able to promote the tea and flavour.
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| Figure 1 |
Higher Living is a brand of tea that I found in Holland & Barrett, which comes in two very different style packaging.
The first takes on a childlike approach with the use of basic colours and almost a block printing effect. The use of a bird as a logo or key image, and sitting him in different natural surroundings reflecting the natural, organic qualities of the tea. Although the back of this first lot of packaging is very text heavy, the bar code design is really very interesting, being made into the shape of the bird, making it a lot more playful and fun for an otherwise rather ugly but necessary element. In the briefing DBA said they like interesting bar codes, so this is definitely something we should try and apply to our own packaging.
The second style of packaging resembles the Teapigs packaging very closely, however the use of brown cardboard makes the brand appear very natural and sustainable, with the different colours allowing the flavours to stand out individually.
Primary Research
Health & Heather use a name tag stick for plants as their key image to hold the brand name and flavour, which not only acts as a great way to allow the text to stand out against the busy pattern background, it also highlights that the brand is natural, and comes straight from the Earth, and that you could almost plant the product and packaging back into the ground and it would sprout again. This is a really clever use of imagery to highlight the natural qualities of this brand, in a not very subtle way, but one that is original and effective.
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Dr Stuart's
This was an interesting find, as it uses funny illustrations related to the effect of the tea as the key imagery on the packaging. This makes it stand out from the crowd and also makes you look a little closer to see what the images are actually doing and what on earth they're doing on the packaging of tea. This is another brand that has used tea to help your body other than to taste nice, in a similar way to Tetley, only taking on more of a detox, purify, slimming form, rather than a boost and multivitamins approach.
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BOOTEA
BOOTEA is not only a brand for tea, it also produces brownies, popcorn and multivitamins to help you detox and lose weight, and is perhaps a healthy alternative to regular products (in a similar way to WeightWatchers?). This brand is definitely aimed at females due to its use of pink and brand name being quite feminine, however it was interesting to see the different forms our nootropics could take, as they could very easily be applied to all different kinds of products, such as brownies or popcorn. This was definitely a brand which showed me how far we could push this brief.
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Evaluation
This research has been essential to understand exactly what is already out there in the market, and the different avenues different brands have taken to be different and stand out. It has also highlighted some successes and negative elements to packaging design, a major negative being the use of heavy text, which is definitely off putting for consumers. The bar code design on the Higher Living packaging was really inspirational, as it showed me the fun you can have with boring elements if you put a bit of creativity in.
When designing the packaging I will definitely refer back to this research to see wha kind of information is included, and how to effectively lay out certain parts of the packaging.
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