Teapigs Redesign: Emily Nash - TY3pd Report
Teapigs Redesign: Emily Nash - TY3pd Report
redesign
emily nash _ TY3pd report
Contents
3 background
4 about teapigs
6 design direction
7 tea market
10 design plan
14 style review
16 initial ideas
17 development
22 pitched design
24 the concept
25 illustration
26 pattern
27 typography
28 online
30 gift set
31 advertisement
background
The tea market is rather crowded; as Brits we drink 165 million cups of
tea a day1! Picking the right tea can be difficult when it comes to the
standard English breakfast tea, but when you add in flavoured tea? A
whole lot harder.
A lot of these choices come down to packaging. Visual impact is
becoming increasingly important as brands compete for sales, and
consumer interest, as new brands come into the field2.
Regarding the sheer importance and role of packaging within the
industry: “All the work that goes into one pack design is aimed at that
moment when the buyer sees the pack and recognizes it from any
advertising the maker carries out, or is compelled to buy it because of
the power of the pack design alone”3.
(1) ESQUIRES COFFEE (N.D)A brief history of tea in Great Britain. Available at: https://es-
quirescoffee.co.uk/news/brief-history-tea-great-britain/, Accessed 13/03/2021
(2) SONSINO, S., (1990) Packaging design: graphics, materials, technology. Thames and
Hudson: London [RUL LARGE—F 659.12-SON]
(3) SONSINO, S., (1990) Packaging design: graphics, materials, technology. Thames and
Hudson: London [RUL LARGE—F 659.12-SON]
3
about teapigs
Redesigning for teapigs, I have researched their qualities, beliefs and
overall background in order to get a better understanding of what
help they need in terms of enhancing their brand. Nick and Louise
formed teapigs in November 2006 with the mission to “get the nation
drinking real tea again,”4. They have a strong belief regarding quality
ingredients, and so this should be reflected in their branding.
Sustainability is important to teapigs; they were the first tea company
to be certified Plastic-Free. I want to keep it this way, as it reflects their
quality tea trade. Their packaging is environmentally friendly, and the
‘tea bag’ is made of a biodegradable mesh fabric.
4
One of the main issues with teapigs’ current packaging is that their
branding and ethos don’t link together to create the packaging; in-
stead, they’re focusing solely on the fact that they create sustainable,
environmentally-friendly products.
When hearing about teapigs my first vision was they’d be quirky,
cool, and be plastered in pigs; but it isn’t? The illustrative, natural look
of their current packaging lends itself well to their ethics and beliefs,
but it isn’t intriguing enough for the consumer. I feel as if the current
design isn’t colourful and eye-catching enough for the current tea
market and doesn’t scream “quality”.
The current, overall look for teapigs is ‘dull’. The colours on the website Figure 2: Teapigs current
(figure 2) are muted, really eco-friendly looking colours, but it severe- website. Source: https://
ly lacks any sense of premium-quality, or fun. www.teapigs.co.uk, ac-
cessed 12/03/21
One thing which I felt did work, was the teapigs current logo (figure
3), it’s a bit quirky, with the varied weights, and the unique ‘t’, as well
as the ‘splat’ full stop. It looks as if this was designed in response to
the brand qualities (as it should be), whereas everything else was an
afterthought for the company.
Figure 3: Teapigs current
logo. Source: https://www.
teapigs.co.uk, accessed
12/03/21
5
a direction?
Taking Ben & Jerry’s (figure 4) as a comparison, Ben & Jerry’s use
natural, ethically sourced ingredients, and they have recyclable pack-
aging... but their packaging is cool, fresh, and doesn’t look typically
eco-friendly. For Ben & Jerry’s, their quirky, premium flavours are what
matters the most, and I think this is the same with the teapigs brand.
Teapigs’ main selling point is the fact that they have so many different,
interesting flavours of tea, and if I were to promote teapigs to some-
one, I would be focused on their amazing flavour range as opposed
to their sustainable packaging.
Going forwards, I will be taking a similar approach to that of Ben &
Jerry’s, as there are no products like it within the tea sector, and I think
it’s a waste of such a brilliant marketing strategy.
6
tea market
The range of flavoured teas is expanding, due to the many health ben-
efits5, and so new, up-coming brands, are struggling to find their way
into the market. Typically, ‘Lipton’ and ‘Twinings’, as well as ‘Tetley’ all
have flavoured teas within their product range, but Lipton is one brand
which is relatively well-known for the flavoured tea alone.
Whilst looking at TESCO’s online tea selection (figure 4) you can see
there’s a lack of design, generally. I am led to believe that a lot of
this is based on recognition; these big tea brands don’t need overly
designed packaging because they’re bought for the taste more than
anything. This is more difficult for upcoming brands, especially within
the flavoured tea industry; with flavoured tea becoming more popular,
a lot of users will need to shop around to find a flavour, and a brand,
that they like and can relate to.
Currently, there only brand which is going a bit further with their
design is ‘Twinings’ (as seen in figure 4), whereas the rest of the tea
brands (tesco own brand, Tetley, PG Tips, etc.,) stick to either a block
colour, or an image, like Yorkshire tea do.
Figure 4: TESCO Tea
As teapigs have a lot more to prove to the consumer, we can assume selection, first search results.
Source: https://www.tesco.
that the best choice would be to stand out from the rest of the compet- com
itors by doing something which no-one else does design-wise. This
could be best done through colour choice, illustrative technique, or
format of the packaging generally.
On the next page I look at photographs of supermarket aisles, to see
how competitors are directly compared on the shelf, and what design
elements best stand out, and which do not.
(5) Eat Right (2020) The health benefits of tea. Available at: https://www.eatright.org/
health/wellness/preventing-illness/the-health-benefits-of-tea, accessed 14/03/2021 7
Teapigs is currently hidden on the
Clear flavour differentiation through shelf, and doesn’t stand out currently;
colour. How else could I show multiple maybe down to size, format is similar
flavours? to the rest of competitors.
8
When looking into packaging colour psychology, it is stated that
“Teenagers and people in the 30s are prone to like purple, which can
be a nice novelty in packaging design. Choosing black will appeal
to younger people. And remember this golden rule - most people do
not like orange,”6 which may explain the lack of orange, but as I’m
aiming my packaging at teenagers and young adults, I feel it would
be beneficial for me to look at using the colour purple in my design, as
well as some calming blues perhaps (linking to the calming, tranquil
nature that one feels after drinking a lovely cup of tea).
Additionally, there’s a lack of white packaging, except the current tea-
pigs design seen in the photo on the right (figure 6), which could be
less practical for storing teabags (spilling anything on it would mark), Figure 7: Tea brands ranking. Source: https://www.thesun.co.uk/
but may help sales. money/9835547/twinings-pg-tip-best-selling-tea-uk/
10
Line drawings, block colours, soft and organic
Potentially too similar to original packaging
My thoughts/ideas, taking a less realistic
approach:
(Not my drawing)
14
Figure 15, 16: Comparing different col-
ouring styles of the geometric teapigs
15
initial ideas
(branding and nutritional
information to be on a
removable belly band.)
a b c d
Using the coloured in geometric pigs, which Initial idea, not using the newer pig illustra- Using the new pig illustrations and style 1 Repetitive design, repeating pig illustrations
can be recoloured to fit the colour scheme I tions; this could be a one-off design? But to inspiration, soft, very organic looking design. and the main ingredient(s). Simple, more so-
take forward. The ingredients would be drawn get the same effect I’d need to free-hand the A lot of pastels and line drawings. phisticated, but not sure if this fits the financial
in a simplistic style, and bright blocks of flat drawings with a front-view face. demographic.
colour would be in the background. Where to put branding?
17
a b
Too many elements Like the com-
which don’t work bination of the
together; feels like a pigs and the
dump of everything I ingredients, but
have illustrated, with currently too busy
some pink blocks. and unsure how it
What flavour actually would work as a
is this? 3D piece
c d
Looking at Ben & Wrong age
Jerry’s as I was group? Feels too
designing this; more classic and old?
of a scene. Still This currently
relatively unclear isn’t a pattern,
what the flavour is and needs to be
and how this would more consistent
be part of a series
c d
20
Taking the approach seen in figure 22, I updated my series design to
match this, with the changes implemented. Currently, I am happy with
these designs but they need some tweaks. The patterns need to be
more spatially consistent, and have a standard ratio of geometric and
non-geometric elements, and currently the heading is ‘floating’ within
the frame, so for a more confident design I will be moving this up to
the top of the frame.
The top and bottom (figure 26) of the packaging will be simple, with
the ingredients on the base, although I also need to add a barcode,
as this is the ‘standard’ place for a barcode on products like this. The
ingredients are taken directly from the original packaging, and are in
a variety of languages, communicating inclusivity, and further empha-
sising the aims of teapigs, to get the nation drinking tea again. The top
of the packaging will not generally be seen within a shop setting, and
so can be simple, with just the representative pig on the top.
21
pitched design
The refined design (figure 27) features the original ‘blurb’ (figure 28)
from each original package for added detail and realism, as well
as the ingredients listing from the original packaging alongside a
barcode on the bottom of each package (figure 29). The top of the
design is a simple origami pig; it was originally the flavour written a
second time, but it didn’t make sense for the series, and as the only
time you’d see the top is after you’d bought it, I felt that the simple pig
was the best way forwards. The user would be able to tell the flavour
from the associated pig (e.g. apple and cinnamon is the orange pig),
as each product in the range would have a unique coloured pig.
Figure 28: Back of packaging, with original blurb Figure 29: Tops and bottoms
and ‘good to know’ from existing packaging of each package
22
Figure 30: Photographs taken
of mocked-up designs
To confirm my design worked for the format, I had to print my design
out. As you can see, the front-facing panel has been large enough to
fit all the text on, and I am pleased with the final result. I also used the
original teabag pack from inside the existing packaging, so make sure
it fit correctly.
23
the concept
The overall plan was to give teapigs a fresh, fun redesign. When de-
ciding on a plan for the shape (figure 9), and the colour (figure 5, 6),
I stuck to what I figured out during my research, that I should stick with
a more premium, reusable format for my product, and that the colour
white stands out within the existing supermarket aisles. The shape has
the removable lid for storage uses, and means that the consumer will
be able to use the packaging after purchase, and can re-fill when the
container is empty. This gives my packaging an edge on competitors
(figure 5, 6), who all use cuboid packages, which don’t offer any
additional purposes.
Going back to the teapigs story, their main issue was the lack of
designed elements in comparison to their focus on sustainability, and
I think with this high-end design, we have pushed quality and fun for-
wards, whilst still having a sustainable, reusable product.
The design concept plays on the formation of the teabag, and works
off the back of the origami technique ‘teabag folding’. This origami/
geometric style is also in trend, it’s quirky, and all of the pigs have
wings. The pigs having origami wings reminded me of the saying
“where pigs fly”, and similar sayings; so I worked off this when cre-
ating advertisements, because teapigs’ tea is almost too good to be
true. “Quality tea? Only where pigs fly!” is my developed slogan for
teapigs, as it links directly to the brand name and gives more context
to it, as well as emphasizing quality.
24
illustration
Some illustrations have been seen previously (figure 15, 16), but here I
am showing all my illustrations for this project in one place.
I wanted to keep the ingredients in the same style as the pigs (figure
16), although this was a real challenge with some ingredients such as
the ginger, and the hibiscus. Therefore, each flavour has a mixture of
geometric illustrations and more traditional illustrations.
The flavours I will be designing are of course lemon and ginger, and
also apple and cinnamon, and super fruit fusion. The super fruit illus-
trations proved to be difficult, as there were so many ingredients, and
I wanted to prioritise having a consistent colour scheme within. I also
had to consider which elements would become geometric.
26
typography
When exploring typography, and thinking back to the study in figure lemon & ginger
8, we saw that there wasn’t much of a “trend” in terms of tea typogra-
phy. I therefore wanted to pick something which was suitable for my lemon & ginger
young-adult audience.
lemon & ginger
Whilst looking at many light, ‘script’ type face options (figure 33), I
felt that they didn’t match my designed elements (the geometric pigs), lemon & ginger
and so ended up moving on to Baron Neue for my headings (flavour
names), and display type, and Bernina Sans for any body text (in- lemon & ginger
gredients on back of pack, description of flavour etc.,). I chose these
two typefaces for how well they worked with the existing teapigs logo Figure 33: Light, subtle,
(which I am moving forwards with), especially Baron Neue’s unusual hand-made typefaces
27
online
Deliverable two, showing online presence. This deliverable involved
the existing teapigs website, with some tweaks to show a bit of my
branding. I changed the colour scheme from the original green, to
a light blue to match the sky background; linking to the pigs can fly
themed slogan which I put together. Another change is with the icons
on the navigation bar (figure 35). Moving forwards, I would change
the navigation bar text to all be consistent, if I were to submit this as
my own work. The site is however still rather simple, as to allow for the
pattern to really shine within the listings page.
Figure 35: Website homepage
The listing page (figure 36) combines the real, whole ingredients, and
the mock-ups of my packaging designs. The combination of these is to
re-instate emphasis on the ‘whole’ ingredients which teapigs use, but
not to take away from the packaging design. There were thoughts of
having the ingredients in front of the packaging on the listing pages,
but I thought ultimately that my packaging design was more interesting
and visually pleasing than the ingredients.
28
Figure 37A-C: Individual listing
page, with different images to show
off product packaging and patterns
29
gift-set
Deliverable 3a is the Mother’s Day gift-set which is the super fruit
fusion tea packaging from deliverable 1, combined with a mug de-
signed specifically for deliverable 3. The mug shows two pigs in the
centre, integrated into a floral design. Initially, there was question as to
whether the pigs would be the same size or not, as the two pigs of the
same size may look more like a couple, however, when one pig was
smaller, the design looked unbalanced. I went forward with the two
pigs of the same size, as the other ‘mum’ connotations and messaging
make it clearer that this is a mum and child on the mug.
30
advertisement
To finish off the project, I wanted to create a bus shelter advertisement,
with the same energy as the packaging (figure 27). Originally, I had
the pigs within the design, to emphasize the brand name, but in reality,
my packaging is the most important part of the project and the new
redesign. The slogan can be seen at the bottom of the advertisement,
and features the lemon and ginger packaging with the teapigs’ wings
attached, to simulate the ‘pigs flying’ aspect. The focus of this adver-
tisement was the ingredients and the combination of these; teapigs
were set on advertising their amazing quality teas, which use whole
and natural ingredients, so I wanted to bring my design round to com-
municate this further.
The design is bright, eye-catching and has a simple message which
would be used to stop ongoing pedestrians. This tactic could be ben-
eficial for teapigs, as it would help their brand out in to the world, and
promote teapigs in a fun and friendly light.
31
teapigs
redesign