“NFG came highly recommended from our UK design team and they lived up to their recommendation. Not only did we end up with a great result but working with the guys was a pleasure. They showed a real understanding of the Innocent brand and what we were trying to achieve, creativity of design, a logical approach to working with multiple text, and a huge amount of patience as we checked the text and designs met brand and legal requirements across 5 different countries”

Helen Pomphrey, Innocent European Brand manager

Our Role
Packaging design

The Brief
Innocent recently launched their ‘wedge’ packs in Germany, Holland & Denmark. The product is specifically aimed at  6-12 year olds and has been a massive hit in the UK market for parents looking to provide their children with a healthy alternative to added sugar drinks. Here are some of the challenges New Future Graphic faced when re-working the existing range:

Adapting On-pack Activities
In the UK each wedge and the inside of the outer package contains a fun game or craft activity, often based around recycling your carton. These features have become hugely popular with Innocent’s 6-12 year old demographic. The task we faced was to create new activities that transcend language barriers without loosing any of the charm of the original activities.

Communication
The pack must engage children, but it’s also imperative that it communicates directly with the parent. It must push the nutritional benefits of the product, and speak to them about the Innocent brand values. The face panel of the outer pack is the main point of contact, so we ensured that this was clear, concise and direct in its presentation of the message.

Aligning with the Portfolio
We identified this as a problem solving project rather than a complete redesign. Every element needed to sit within the brand guidelines, so that the final packaging fits perfectly into the Innocent product family. Amongst other things, maintaining type sizes whilst tripling the amount of copy proved a significant challenge.

Multi-lingual Packs
As with all food and drink packaging there are certain legal requirements when it comes to listing ingredients, nutritional information, etc. The immediate challenge was crossing three language barriers on one pack. Alongside this the legal requirements for a further two countries have to be considered, all while retaining Innocent’s signature style – their unique and fun approach to packaging.

The Process
We broke the project down into three phases: problem solving, activity development and testing.

Phase 1 was about developing a clear hierarchy of information and stripping the packs back to their essential necessary information to see what we had to play with. After feedback and development sessions we arrived at wedge and carton designs that contained all the necessary information, adhered to the brand guidelines and sat comfortably within the portfolio, all while remaining dynamic and exciting to look at.

During the activity development stage we created new language-free games and activities. We wanted enticing visuals that spoke for themselves, without any loss of the style synonymous with the UK versions. We started by looking at the vast back catalogue of activities (some of which we created during previous projects), and picked a shortlist of suitable games that could be modified and stripped of language. We also generated new ideas and together formed a long list that was eventually narrowed down to 15.

As well as the outer activities we looked to use the inside of the outer carton. This inside space previously housed recycling information but we saw an opportunity for a new and different sort of activity. As with the wedge we created a selection of language free ‘cut out and create’ activities.