Lea & Perrins Factory Tour

On __________, I was a part of a guided tour through the Lea & Perrins factory in Worcester. Here we learnt the process of manufacture of the sauce.

Firstly, we were taken into the lower rooms (basement) of the factory, where the ingredients such as garlic and onions were being fermented in barrels (these were cleaned out on rotation).

We were then taken out behind the factory where we discovered that their aim as a company is to downsize their input to landfill to zero (hopefully with a little help from our designs!)

We were then taken along into the main factory floor where we learnt more about the current design of the packaging, including the bottle labels and the cardboard trays used to distribute to shops.

The cardboard trays were an element of the design I hadn't really thought of before the factory visit, as I was focusing mainly on the label design and the sustainability of the actual bottle itself. Our guide discussed with us how important these trays were for not only transport purposes, but also for marketing and drawing attention to their product/s.

Overall, I found the Lea & Perrins tour to be helpful in the sense that we could view the manufacture of the sauce first-hand, get a real feel for what the company are looking for, and understand their stance on the original Lea & Perrins bottle design.

Assessed Blog Task

Q1) Materials lightness, suitability for purpose, minimalising of materials use and 'clever or smart' usages of materials were all considerations discussed at CAT with Jo. With your present designs for the Lea and Perrins brief mixed with the research that you've done to date and some of Jo's discussions  (remember there's an mp3 on this year's CAT trip post) suggest 3 ways in which you might minimise your materials use with your package. 

Q2) After our group tutorials in sessions last week we spoke with all who attended about their ideas to date and made suggestions on how they might be improved upon. What 3 considerations did you take away from those discussions and how might they affect the way that you've taken your designs further since last week's sessions?

Q3) Again, on the back of tutorial discussions in sessions last week we'd agreed that most of you needed to add further references/research into products (food-related or otherwise) or precedents that successfully applied some or all of the ideas you were suggesting for the L+P brief. You'll need to have these anyway as part of a rounded set of supporting research. Name or cite 3 precedents or examples of how your ideas for L+P have already been applied commercially.


My Answers:

Q1) My current label design is smaller and uses less paper than the original Lea & Perrins label. I have been working on displaying as much necessary information as possible while keeping the packaging down to a minimum. In order to make this label even more minimal, I could perhaps work on the concertina 'booklet' at the back of the bottle and using less paper (but still keeping in mind that it must remain legible)

Q2) I am looking at A) bringing the sustainability aspect to the forefront of the design B) perhaps shortening the concertina label at the back of the bottle C) considerations into glue alternatives between the paper and bottle.

Q3) I have looked into The Big Knit by Innocent Smoothie, Beauty With Heart by The Body Shop, and One For One by Toms - I feel these companies and organisations have really guided me towards ensuring that the sustainability/recycling factor of a product is key for marketing. It really pushes towards encouraging consumers to buy the product and feel like they are doing their part for the environment by doing so - something which I would really like to put forward in my designs for Lea & Perrins.