Main Brief: Label research

After my incredibly rough designs I realised that the best route to go down would be creating a label that does not go all the way around the bottle. This would use less ink and less paper. I then decided to research labels from different company's whose product was sold in bottles.

 As I have mentioned in a previous post, I like the idea of using a vintage theme. I decided on this as I feel that it helps to express the longevity of Lea & Perrins, I also feel that 'vintage' is becoming fashionable again.This being the case, I then researched vintage labels and found...

Even though most of these labels belong on beer bottles I believe that a design influenced by such images will be perfect for Lea & Perrins.

All images from Google.

'Filthy Rich'

Okay...so a time out from the Lea and Perrins brief and a quick look at the news;

" Filthy Rich: Britain's favourite dictatorship had so much oil its heiressess bathe in it...[...]"

...wait...what?!

 The rich ladies of Azerbaijan bathe in crude oil believing that it can cure skin diseases and arthritis even though medical science states that after 10 minutes the effects are more than likely to be carcinogenic.

This infuriates me because to me it appears to be the exact definition of greed and gluttony. Argggh.


SOURCE

Filthy rich: Britain's favourite dictatorship had so much oil its heiresses bathe in it... but beneath the fabulous wealth of Azerbaijan lurks very murky secrets

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2237824/Azerbaijan-oil-heiresses-bathe--beneath-lurks-murky-secrets.html#ixzz2DG3EqsAo
Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2237824/Azerbaijan-oil-heiresses-bathe--beneath-lurks-murky-secrets.html#ixzz2DG3EqsAo
Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2237824/Azerbaijan-oil-heiresses-bathe--beneath-lurks-murky-secrets.html#ixzz2DG3EqsAo
Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook

Main Brief: Rough designs

After being delayed and locked on a train for a very long time (from Liverpool to Worcester) my mind decided that it actually wanted to think about university work. Consequently I decided to write down anything that came into my head, essentially brainstorming/mind mapping, about Worcestershire sauce.

My first thought was;

                       "How come the majority of people I have asked haven't tried Worcestershire sauce?"

I then thought about why I haven't tried it. The answer? Money.

                           " In what way could you get the sauce for free?"

Okay, so granted this wouldn't be what Lea & Perrins would want to hear. However within this thought a question arose...

                                   "Do Lea & Perrins do sachets? like pub sachets?"

Well personally I think they should as I believe this would help promotion.

Everybody seems to keep linking 'innocent smoothies' to Worcestershire sauce recently, I'm yet to figure out why. However, it made me think about why they are successful (apart from being delicious). Is it their advertising? Is it their "quirky" design. (huge *sigh* at the word quirky) Innocent smoothies are amongst several businesses (ribena, extra chewing gum, etc.) that give objects human/animal traits. For example, berries that talk, onions that can walk. Therefore, as a marketing campaign, can the Worcestershire sauce ingredients be personified? Will it fit the target group?

I then began to think about the general population and the previously mentioned 'WHAT DO I GAIN?!' attitude. What DOES the consumer gain? it's eco friendly, it's the original taste and it's not that expensive. 

How can it be sustainable? less ink=less bleaching during recyling. Can it be re-used? Recycled/natural materials? Refilled (like milk bottles)?

I drew some rough designs on the train in my journal (that I'll scan in on a later date) but because they were incredibly scruffy I drew them on illustrator. THESE ARE INITIAL TEN SECOND IDEAS.

I like the use of the lid label on #2 and will probably continue this throughout my designs. Something I probably won't include, because everybody will, is the use of the Worcester cathedral in #2 and #3.

Case Study: Prett A Manger

PRET is quite literally the tastiest food ever. The food isn't too dear and any additives are avoided.

That's not the best part...

Pret A Manger is a small chain company that gives any left over food at the end of the day to the homeless. Pretty nifty eh?

It's also doing it's bit towards sustainabilty.

Seacourt & Revive

Seacourt is the world's first zero waste printing company. The printing industry is the 1/6 worst polluting and the 1/5 most used/important industry. Instead of paragraphing my notes I'll write them down exactly how they appear in my sketchbook.

• waterless printing company
• originally had "as long as it's in a bin it's sorted" attitude
• 6 x 5m3 bins of waste each week
• 306 bins per annum, straight to landfill
• "jumped in the bins and found bags full of paper"
• Used to use chemicals to break down the water molecules
• 1997= waterless offset
• 1999= 2nd printer worldwide to be EMA's, environmentally acredited
• balance ink & water or it damages the image
• 2007= carbon  neutral, recycled paper, vegetable inks only 
• 2003= 100% renewable energy (solar panel)
• awarded wildlife trusts biodiversity benchmark
• winner of the Oxfordshire sustainable awards
• 2007= winner Queens award for sustainable awards
• Their water useage is less than an average family home
• 4 wormeries were then installed
• 2009= 1st printer in the world to send 0% waste to landfill
• Printing on bamboo fibre

  Revive    

• 5, 000, 000 tons of paper based waste
• Scandinavia= virgin paper
• recycled paper= France, Italy, Germany
• paper can only be recycled 4 or 5 times then the fibres become too short
• said fibres can then be used in insulation, cat litter.
• However recycled paper OBVIOUSLY needs some new virgin paper for new fibre
• " at the point of design; what will become of this after use?"
• "don't be ashamed of using paper, be ashamed of  waste"
• "without failure there is no success"    

After listening to Mark from Seacourt I realised that the company uses recycling as a gimic to aid their success. It made me think; say if recycling stop beings 'quirky' and becomes the 'norm'? surely they'd find another route to go down as they like being different? Mark continuously expressed that Seacourt is full of businessmen and NOT environmentalists. Which slightly aggrivated me as it meant they cared more about money than the environment,which sort of contradicted what their company stood for. I'm sure they'd get a lot less business if they went with a true slogan, such as; "Without the threat of climate change, there'd be no Seacourt.We'd have no gimic. Thank the environmental crisis"

However, I can understand that to stand out in the business world you need to be different. To offer things other businesses cannot. In Seacourt's case it's having 0% waste sent to landfill. It can also be argued that as long as they are having minimal negative impact on the environment, who cares what the underlying reason is? 

(Pages 13-16 in journal) 

 
    

Main Brief: bottle research

I am incredibly indecisive with most things in life. It is a trait that becomes the biggest annoyance whilst studying Art&Design because it completley hinders the ability to start desigining anything. I'm finding it difficult to even do a mock up of a design, especially when I have NO idea where to start. I managed to find a video that helped me slightly...

 

One method of making an object sustainable is to make sure that it has another use after it's initial purpose.

Therefore I researched to find ways to re-use glass bottles...

 The bottom two images are ways in which I feel would be good to sell small multipacks. I like the idea of the label going over the top of the bottle and not just around.

All images from HERE and HERE

I then wondered what an empty bottle of Lea & Perrins looks like...

 

Looks quite aesthetically pleasing so maybe it could be re-used?

Anthropocene - The Human Epoch

'I like to compare what's going on today to the asteroid that wiped out the dinosaurs - except that now we are the asteroid' - Anthony Barnosky               

                                                      
Geologists have suggested that humanity's impact upon the atmosphere is so profound, due to the burning of fossil fuels, that we're creating a new geological time period. They're calling it the Anthropocene.

Fossil fuel emissions, climate change, agriculture and chemical pollution may all be portrayed in various ways in sediments in the seas, lakes and rivers. Millions of years from now the layers of sediment will have compacted into rock which future geologists can analyse. 

The BBC news website has a lot of information on this new era...

  What will be left of our cities?

Have humans created a new geological age?

 Welcome to the Anthropocene

Government policy on renewable energy.

There are 3,400 onshore wind turbines across the UK at 324 different sites, generating 3% of the UK's electricity. A further 4,000 turbines are due to be built by 2020.

David Cameron has stated that there has been no change in the government's policy on renewable energy after John Hayes has stated that the UK has had 'enough of onshore wind farms'. (A previous greenlight DECC blog post helps to refute this).    

He proclaimed,
         'We can no longer have wind turbines imposed upon communities'

Is this due to the benefit of the economy or for purely aesthetic reasons?

READ IT HERE