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.

Robert Horne Talk (Mary) Notes

> Mary is the environmental product sales manager
> 5 million tonnes of paper-based waste goes into landfill every year
> 8.5kg per family per week of paper-based waste
> Breakdown of paper in papermills
> Papermills are usually placed on a river, and uses a lot of water. Cleans and replaces
> Filtered fibres when creating paper (fibres can only be used a maximum of 4 or 5 times) when used fully goes into cat litter etc
> Green claims code
> (Polyethylene? Look into for Lea & Perrins bottle?)
> Use paper, but be very conscious about it being wasted  

Seacourt Talk (Mark) Notes

> Waterless Printing Company
> As a business, their water usage is less than the average family home.

1997 - Totally water offset
1998 - Registration to ISO140011999
1999 - Second printer worldwide to EMAS environmentally accredited
2001 - Certified as carbon neutral, use recycled paper as preference, and have vegetable oil based inks only
2003 - Switched to 100% renewable energy
2004 - Awards with Wildlife Trust's biodiversity benchmark and won he Oxfordshire Sustainable Award
2007 - Won the Queen's Award for Sustainability
2009 - Installation of environmentally sympathetic digital printing machines
2010 - Verification of zero waste to landfill
2011 - Won second Queen's Award for Sustainable Development
2012 - Large format production commenced.

Further Lea & Perrins Designs

After reading through the brief thoroughly, I got straight to designing some more prototypes in further detail:

Front: The above image shows the iconic bottle shape of Lea & Perrins (design mandatories: retain iconic bottle design), with a similarly designed black cap - this will be an easy-screw cap made of a recyclable material (further research into sustainable materials). The bottle itself I've decided will be made of recycled and recyclable Enviroglass (in either volcanic black or clear). The most imperative part of this design is that it must be sustainable. I have to make this bottle easy for consumers to recycle. All that would need to be done to this bottle after use is a quick disassemble. The cap would screw off, and I have exchanged the current label design for an easy-peel recyclable sticker on either side of the bottle.

Back: This is a view from the back of the bottle. After associating my ideas with the brief objectives, I designed this. Taking on board that I must "create a pack design that is attractive to the 20-35 year old age group" and that the pack design "needs to inspire people to use the product in their everyday cooking". With the easy-peel recyclable sticker being a more contemporary shape (and although the design itself I understand was not a part of the brief, I have redesigned this too, keeping the original signature but inviting a new age of consumer in) I feel that this would already catch the eyes of a younger generation. The sticker on the back of this bottle however folds out, in a concertina manner revealing different meals and their recipes that can be made using their own Lea & Perrins sauce. In short, giving a revamp to their already existing meal ideas, and reminding consumers that they can make all these dishes themselves too.

To let consumers know that their product is a new 'green' sustainable product, I have designed a small green droplet shape to symbolise it's eco-friendly status and to show it is relative to Lea & Perrins sauce. This is in hope it will remind consumers that the product is made for recycling and encourage them to do so.

Case Study: The Body Shop

Beauty With Heart

The Body Shop are more eco-conscious than ever. They are committed to reducing their impact on the environment by reducing the energy they consume, and generating less waste - taking full responsibility for the way they run their business, and hoping to change attitudes towards being eco-friendly worldwide, building on "positive efforts made by suppliers, franchisees, colleagues and customers".

measuring their performance against 2012, they have clear targets for 2020 - to reduce the direct impact of their operations in stores, offices and distribution centres by:

> Reducing their CO2 emissions by 50%, including emissions from electricity, gas, diesel consumption and transporting products from distribution centres to stores.
> Reducing their electricity consumption by 50% (a key contributor to CO2 emissions)

> Reducing their waste by 50% (reducing all waste created by stores, offices and distribution centres) and hopefully counting product packaging. 

> Reducing their domestic water consumption by 25% making sure none is wasted.
 
The Body Shop are also creating wildlife areas at all of their corporate sites, with allotments, beehives, meadows, fruit trees and butterfly-friendly areas.

Also relating back to a previous post "The Story of Stuff" this video (unlisted YouTube video - courtesy of The Body Shop) gives an insight into ethical trade and externalised costs:

Ethical Trade Video

These are big company changes - all for the greater good, so to buy from The Body Shop now as opposed to even 2 years ago in 2010 is so much better for the environment. These changes mean big cuts on their consuming of energy and therefore making for a better, more eco-friendly corporate company.

Case Study: Innocent Smoothie

The Big Knit

Now the main project brief has been set, I have been looking a little further into existing companies who do their part for our plane, as I do not wish to be too caught up in the appearance of the bottle design and dismiss the need for this product to be sustainable and eco-friendly. Therefore, I decided to take a look around and see what I could find with regards to similar companies and how their products and/or campaigns help our environment.

The Big Knit is a annual campaign set up by the founders of Innocent Smoothie, that encourages supporters from all over the country to knit little woolly hats for the caps of the smoothies, and for every bottle sold, 25p will go towards Age UK supporting the elderly generation during the winter months. Since they began nine years ago, they have raised over £1 million.

This, in turn, cuts down on gas use and does it's part for the environment and community. Using witty, attractive designs and with a campaign for a great cause, this is a highly successful piece of product design.