Initial Designs

Although I am aware that the bottle design is not a part of this brief, and that the original iconic design must be kept, I designed a few quick sketches of ideas (that I will not end up using) anyway (shown below). I experimented with squeezy plastic bottle designs, and made considerations into exactly which sustainable material I thought the bottle should be made out of such as glass, black glass and plastic.

I also experimented with it's logo design to get a feel of the design in its entirety, using the orange and black colour scheme and simplistic designs.

Special Editions and Recipes

Although there is an original, recognisable design for Lea & Perrins, There are also numerous designs for Lea & Perrins special edition bottles and recipes (below). I intend to involve recipes in my designs to encourage consumers to not only use the product as a sauce, but also as an ingredient for a main meal.

Lea & Perrins Special Edition

Lea & Perrins The Burger Booster

Lea & Perrins LEAsagne

Lea & Perrins Spaghetti BoLEAgnese

A History of Lea & Perrins

Lea and Perrins, alike any other brand on market today, has gone through quite some changes in design since it's first appearance on our shelves. Quite considerably in comparison to its 1900's advertisements (shown below):

This design (in a rather long-winded way) explains exactly what it needs to, however it is far too much to look at. It's so informative, that it is in fact disengaging. As a consumer, I feel that the image needs to be simplified and there needs to be next to no text. My designs will have minimal text, so as to not disengage consumers.

This next Lea & Perrins design is a lot simpler, the busy image has been taken away and colour has been added (the proud orange and black colour scheme) The only elements this design has in common with its predecessor is "The original & genuine" and the Lea Perrins signature in the background. This design I feel is far more eye-catching and attractive as an on-the-shelf product.

 

This is the present design for Lea & Perrins Worcestershire sauce. Although slightly clearer, the design is almost identical to the previous - keeping the signature and the recognisable colour scheme.

Main Project: Lea & Perrins

Brief:
Create a prototype sustainable working alternative design for Worcester Sauce packaging.

Required brief deliverables:
Attract a new generation of Lea & Perrins users (without alienating the current, older market) through educating them of exciting ways to use Lea & Perrins in everyday dishes. You must use innovative sustainable packaging designs, materials and considerations in your final solutions.

Design objectives:
> Create a packaging design that is attractive to the 20-35 year old age group
> Inspire people to use the product in their everyday cooking
> Made as sustainable as possible, adhering to the Heinz Corporate social responsibility guidelines

Design mandatories:
> Retain the proud orange and black branding
> Retain the iconic bottle design
> Keep the original and genuine feel of the product

Design considerations:
> Great 'shelf stand-out'
> Attach elements to the bottle such as recipe cards
> Alternate bottle materials to be explored
>Themes of refill, recyclability and bio-materials should be considered

Strategic target:

Cooks who are relatively confident in the kitchen but are looking for new, easy ways to jazz up their repertoire of recipes.

Primary target:

New consumers to the Lea & Perrins brand

What do we want them to think and do?

'I couldn't do without my bottle of Lea & Perrins in the kitchen. It's such a versatile ingredient and a great way of transforming the everyday food I cook.'

The Product:
Lea & Perrins produce Worcestershire Sauce, which was first created by chemists John Wheeley Lea and William Henry Perrins of Worcester. They have created the sauce to a similar closely guarded recipe ever since, in the same factory that Lea and Perrins built in 1897. In 1906 the High Court declared that only Lea & Perrins Worcestershire sauce may be called 'Original and Genuine'. Over the years the company has been aligned with HP Sauce, the Danone Group and is now owned by Heinz. Currently the sales of Worcestershire sauce are in decline, with Heinz losing 8.3% a year and 55% of sales coming from households with no children, inspiring Lea & Perrins to reach out to a younger audience.

They must now comply to the Heinz Corporate Social Responsibility Guidelines which are reducing waste across the board, such as reducing greenhouse gas emissions, solid waste, energy consumption and water consumption.

CAT Visit

On Thursday 25th October we visited

the Centre for Alternative Technology in Machynlleth, Wales.

Set in the depths of the Welsh mountains, CAT is a visitor centre which "demonstrates the practical solutions for sustainability" and aims to educate the public on how we can make alternative choices to benefit our planet - focusing mainly on green living, eco-sanitisation, organic growing, woodland management and environmental building.

The centre itself was built sustainably in an abandoned slate quarry, and there was only one way to reach it - using their very one water-balanced cliff railway (as shown below). This method gathers and releases water depending on the weight of the number of passengers riding, using no electricity what-so-ever.

During our visit, we were given a talk by Jo, a member of staff at the CAT centre. Jo gave us a presentation on sustainability and how we can make changes to our lifestyle to benefit the greater good. He quoted from websites such as GapMinderWorld.com, and even from the video; The Story of Stuff. After a more general take on the subject, he narrowed it down to the building we were in - the WISE (Wales Institute for Sustainable Education) building, and exactly how it was built. We were given a box of different building materials (most of which were eco-friendly and mostly uncommon to us as "building materials") our job was to name each material, we then learnt how they were used as a part of the building.

I found this useful, as it was then clear to me that as not only a nation, but as a planet, we have the choice. We do not have to use these highly toxic, high in energy resources in order to build and live comfortable lives. We can just as easily live using natural resources. And although Jo also made the understandable point that "simply recycling won't diminish the issue", there are other options. It was suggested that to really put a dent in this downward spiral, we must put a stop our constant consuming.


On Reflection:

Had you heard of CAT before you came on the module? 
I had not heard of CAT before this module.


Please give your thoughts on the 3x most notable points raised in the sustainability lecture on site
I gathered from the talk by Jo that although recycling can only be positive - as, it stands, it is not making much of a difference in the long run. If we want to live fully sustainable lives, we must make bigger commitments and focus not only on what we are recycling from our groceries and smaller, menial things, but more so on our housing materials, our ways of central heating and our use of natural resources.


Please give your thoughts on the 3x most notable things picked up while at CATAfter the talk from Jo and exploring the grounds around CAT, I picked up on a few things about the centre. For example, the solar panels on the roof instead of using a central heating system with gas (these were facing South in order to use optimum sun power throughout the day). Jo had also mentioned that they use fibre glass, compressed wood and wool as insulation inside the walls of the building.

Now you've had time to reflect, what 3x things gained from the CAT visit might you bring forward into your ideas and developments for the sustainable packaging brief? 
Since visiting CAT I have gained an inside look at how sustainable housing really works, and I feel the talk by Jo was greatly beneficial as it filled in the gaps and answered any questions I had.

A Short Presentation on Base Materials: Metal - by Mair, Keely and Paulo

The Story of Stuff

The Story of Stuff (2008) by Annie Leonard is a short, mostly animated, documentary highlighting the root issues in our economy. With growing "greedy" corporations and extraction ("trashing the planet") taking place, it is no wonder we are running ourselves into the ground. Along with this video came some pretty shocking and eye-opening facts. For example, the USA population is approximately 5% of the entire world's population, however, shockingly, they use 30% of the world's resources. But it begs the question, is this just simply put down to greed? Or are products being "designed for the dumps"?

With media having a massive affect on our lives, advertisement is being pushed at us left, right and centre. We can't walk down the street, watch television, or sit on a train or bus without being told what we need to buy in order to lead a more fulfilling and "happier" lifestyle. As Annie Leonard talks about, it's a " Work, watch, spend" treadmill - we work to earn money, come home tired and watch television where we're told to buy things, so we go and buy them, go back to work so we can pay of debts and afford more things, then come back tired so we watch television again, where we are told to by more things..." it's a vicious - perceived obsolescence - cycle.

But it is just this? Or are these items we are buying designed for the dump? As 99% of items going through the production system are being thrown away as rubbish within only 6 months - a shockingly short amount of time. Poor quality items, for a low currency cost with only a short lifespan. These items may not be costing us, but they are costing others. These are externalised costs. The charge is going to those working in the production or near the manufacturing of these items. They lose out on their share of the pay (going to big corporations) and even on their environment, as our rubbish is being dumped on their land and their natural resources are being extracted. For example, 2000 trees in the Amazon are lost every minute due to this.

Although Annie states that even if we all were to recycle 100% of our household rubbish it would work towards stopping this out-of-control downward spiral, there is something we can do. We must work to stop consuming. Instead of buying and recycling - stop buying. Make suitable choices in what we purchase and if we don't need it, make do or decide on an eco-friendly alternative. For example, in this video (also by Annie Leonard) instead of purchasing bottled water, fill a bottle of our own and reuse it instead of throwing away empty plastic bottle after plastic bottle of water. This wouldn't make a difference to us, as, according to this video, some specific brands of water are filtered tap water anyway, regardless of their "make them scared to drink tap water" marketing techniques.

So, in conclusion, instead of buying into these big corporations, we must stop and evaluate. Do we really need this product in our lives? Would finding an alternative work just as well, if not, better? Can we reuse it instead of throwing it out? If we make these positive changes in our own lives, maybe then might we see a difference.