London-based Studio Conran has created the identity, branding and packaging for new independent food company Petit Pois. The company’s cakes, which are the brain-child of dynamic duo Ashley Maddox and Harry Eastwood, are made using vegetables instead of butter and some of the sugar. The product will launch in Selfridges Food Halls on March 15, 2011.
Appointed in January, Studio Conran was briefed to create a visual identity that conveyed a distinctively honest, natural and mischievous brand identity that interacted with the customer in a playful way, whilst reflecting the healthy yet stylish characteristics of the Petit Pois cakes.
Each cake has just the thinnest layer of icing and is topped with a little green marzipan pea to indicate that it’s genuinely good for you. The design team created a logo which reflects the straightforward nature of the cakes—a simple green circle symbolising the cake’s pea sits in the centre of the circular logo. The logo was integrated successfully into the packaging through the use of the green stripe running through the centre of the logo, which ties back to the idea that the pea symbolizing ‘the craftsman’s mark’ is at the heart of what Petit Pois does. The logo’s placement on the box with the green stripe running out from under it gives it the appearance of a rosette with a ribbon running over the box, adding to the playful nature of the presentation.
The retro rainbow palette adopted by the Studio Conran team for the packaging provides a happy balance between the organic and the eye-catching with each coloured stripe representing a different fruit or vegetable used by the company in their recipes. The packaging also includes a playful inner tray, which reveals the ‘hidden vegetable ingredients’ in a light-hearted and engaging way.
“The cakes themselves are obviously the star of the show but we’ve introduced vibrant, distinctive pantones in to the packaging that match the colours of the vegetables that Petit Pois use in their cakes. The packaging is fresh, contemporary and immediately recognizable, which is the least these delicious cakes deserve.” Flo Bayley, Studio Conran.