Clare Anne Taylor Couture Cakes – Brand Packaging Design

Clare Anne Taylor Couture Cakes: Brand Packaging Design

Clare Anne Taylor Couture Cakes are one of Ireland’s leading luxury cake designers for special events and weddings. The core of the business is luxurious quality and elegance in the design and craft of their cakes and confections.

The client, Clare Anne Taylor, wanted the packaging to be suitable for gifting. When bringing to someone, the box should be beautiful and elegant enough to give the feel of a gift presentation. She wanted the brand to epitomise the highest standard and quality available on the market.

The client needed to easily separate between the ranges, while maintaining a consistent brand style. A PMS colour palette was created for each range, to create clarity in differentiating between the ranges. A pink swatch was selected for the main Clare Anne Collection, green for the Signature Collection for confectionery and a Warm Grey for the Couture Collection. Clare Anne had been using similar colours to these in her labelling as she liked the soft, feminine tones. We therefore developed these colour swatches to slightly deeper hues, to allow the brand to stand out more prominently, as the existing colours were quite faded, making legibility a little difficult.

Another way to separate the ranges in a subtle, sophisticated manner was to alternate the strapline/tagline under the brand name/logo for each range. In the brief, Clare mentioned that she would like to exceed expectations for customers. Therefore, for the main ‘Clare Anne Collection’ range, I created the tagline ‘Exceeding Expectations’. This was then changed to the individual range names for the ‘Signature Collection’ and the ‘Couture Collection’.

For the main Clare Anne range, we created the concept of a pink, bow sleeve around kraft boxes, to meet the brief’s aim of communicating the experience of receiving a beautiful gift. Clare wanted to showcase the beautiful artistry of the cakes within, therefore we designed a large window on the front of the boxes to meet the brief’s aims, leaving space at the back of the boxes for possible ingredient/nutritional labels to be added per cake, as each cake is bespoke.

For the box and sleeve design, the design is simple and minimal to convey the quality of the brand. The boxes and sleeves feature a delicate floral illustration to connect to the beautiful artistic floral designs that Clare creates on her cakes. Another factor used to communicate the level of quality is the premium standard of printing of the kraft boxes and pink sleeves. The Signature Collection features a green interior with three different inserts for various types of confectionery. The e-commerce box was created to hold the confectionery boxes securely for delivery. The printing specialists that we worked with to reach our design requirements and unique print specifications for this project’s packaging range was JJ O’Toole.

See more about Clare Anne Taylor Couture Cakes:

Instagram: instagram.com/taylorclareanne

Website: clareannetaylor.ie

September 9, 2022 /

Dublin Hills Goats Cheese Brand Packaging Design

Dublin Hills Goats Cheese is handcrafted on the foothills of the Dublin Mountains. It is natural and sustainably made, using just four simple and natural ingredients. The goats are grass-fed and roam freely in the fresh green fields at the foothills of the Dublin Mountains and is suitable to be enjoyed by vegetarians. Dublin Hills is the only goats cheese maker in Dublin. The company is run by farmer and food producers, Tim and Brigid McGlynn. They have a herd of dairy goats and free-roaming hens on their farm, known locally as ‘Oldcourt Hill Farm’. The honey flavour is drizzled with honey from Olly’s Farm.

Dublin Hills strive for a sustainable farming system, which is reflected in the flavour and quality of the cheese. They pride themselves on producing local, natural and sustainable goats cheese on their family farm, with goats roaming freely on their lush hillside pastures. This unique and delicious soft, creamy artisan cheese has a reputation for being extremely addictive! You can find it in local SuperValu stores and Tim has been known to be there on occasion offering tastings of the cheese to consumers.

The project began with a brainstorming phase for the name, with the final decision on ‘Dublin Hills‘ working effectively to clearly communicate one of the company’s USP’s (Unique Selling Point) – their provenance and that they are a local, Dublin based goats cheese producer. The Dublin Mountains can be seen from various points all over Dublin, from North to South (where they are located) and are a much-loved and popular landmark feature of Dublin anyone living in the county.

Their provenance and location also informed the design of the logo – the typography playfully mimics the curves of the foothills of the Dublin Mountains that their farm is situated on, almost as if the brandmark is sitting on the hills itself. This is crafted in a sophisticated and premium style. The gold underlay to the bold black type denotes the quality of the cheese. There is a small illustrative icon locked up with the typography which further emphasises their location.

The client wanted to communicate how they are a small local farm with free-roaming goats that graze in their natural surroundings. To consider this, we incorporated an illustration of a goat in a meadow of fresh grass, with mountains in the background on the packaging. The taste of the goats cheese is mild and soft, from young goats milk, and so the goat depicted is young in appearance to indicate this. This young goat sits within a ribbon badge on the front of the packaging – this is a visual cue to symbolise the quality of this cheese.

Brand Guidelines & Assets:

A full brand guidelines were included with this brand packaging project. The colour palette and typography chosen are earthy, natural, bright and fresh to indicate these aspects of how the Dublin Hills handcrafted cheese is produced. Illustrative icons and descriptor text on the packaging design communicate some of the other brand USP’s, such as that the cheese is ‘Sustainable & Natural’, that the goats are ‘Free-Roaming, Grass-Fed Goats’ and that the cheese is ‘Suitable for Vegetarians’. The barcode is playful, featuring an icon of a young goat on a hill as part of the barcode device. On the front side of the packaging design, images of the cheese are included to visually appeal to consumer’s taste buds. The brand story is featured on the back side of the pack, to allow consumers to connect with the McGlynn family’s brand story and background.

A minimum Clear Space recommend guide was defined for best use of the brand. There is a version of the logo with the strapline ‘Artisan Dublin Farmhouse Cheese‘, which is used on occasions where the full pack artwork isn’t there to communicate their values.

Dublin Hills Goats Cheese is currently available in SuperValu stores:

Dublin:

Orwell, Templeogue, Dublin 6

Rathgar, Rathfarnham, Dublin 6

Ballyroan, Rathfarnham, Dublin 14

Get Fresh, Rosemount SC, Rathfarnham, Dublin 14

The Merry Ploughboy Pub, Rathfarnham, Dublin 14 (in their food menu)

Knocklyon, Templeogue, Dublin 16

Firhouse, Tallaght, Dublin 24

Lucan, Co. Dublin

Wicklow:
Blessington, Co. Wicklow

Follow Dublin Hills Goats Cheese on Social Media:

Instagram: @dublinhillsgoatscheese

Facebook: www.facebook.com/Dublin-Hills-Goats-Cheese-114380377922359/

July 27, 2022 /

Your Life Audit Brand Identity

Your Life Audit – Brand Identity

‘Your Life Audit’ is a coaching business run by Catriona Kennedy, specialising in one-to-one personal life coaching, corporate coaching and coaching for schools and groups. It aims to empower clients with the tools and resources they need to unlock, achieve and maximise their personal and professional development and fulfilment.

Life coaching is a rewarding process aimed at giving you the control and direction to embrace life and fulfil your potential. It can help you identify and utilise your innate skills and qualities, develop optimism and build positive relationships, find true meaning and purpose in life and more. To put simply, coaching is all about creating positive change for you, with you and in you. Catriona is a certified Life Coach, with Neuroscience, and the creator of Your Life Audit and she believes in the power of YOU.

The logo draws focus towards the letter ‘U’ in the word ‘YOU’ to highlight how using these services is an investment on you – a transformative journey where you will be the number one focus in developing your inner voice, to determine which direction you would like to move forward with.

Different patterns are used inside the ‘U’ shape for brand rollout, such as the seascape texture and similar photographs which resonate with the brand. In the brand messaging, the strap-line ‘Investing in You’ is alternated with similar messaging to suit each particular photograph, such as ‘Guiding U / Supporting U / Connecting with U’.

This branding is very fluid and flexible / interactive – with the ‘U’ being used in many ways with imagery for the brand rollout in the marketing collateral. The ‘U’ is playful and fun, with different textures within it. It is full of life and enthusiasm, similar to Catriona and her coaching work.

There was a large range of collateral included in this brand, including:

Variations of the logo to include with and without the strapline, Catriona’s signature, and alternative versions with texture placed within the ‘U’
Instagram tile graphics
Instagram social templates which are backgrounds for the placing text over
Instagram posts with marketing messaging
Website banners and layout design
Gathering and supplying a brand image bank
Brand Guidelines
Logo Favicon

I loved working on this brand, as I strongly believe in the message and ethos that Your Life Audit advocates. Change, although uncomfortable, can bring about very positive growth in a person. Focusing on putting time into yourself in terms of understanding your needs and wants, taking time for what fulfils you, enriching your life by doing things that you love and listening to your inner voice can lead to the best you. This creates a better and happier person for life in general, and then you can in turn be a better person for those around you. When you focus on you first, you are then able to give more to the world. Your Life Audit helps to empowers you to become your best self and feel positively inspired about your life and purpose.

By highlighting the ‘U’ in the brand name ‘Your Life Audit’, it emphasises a key aspect that they would like to get across to their clients, that –

“Once you focus on YOU, anything can happen”
Catriona Kennedy, Your Life Audit Coaching

Find out more on their website:

www.yourlifeaudit.ie

Or on their social media pages:

https://www.instagram.com/your_lifeaudit/

https://www.facebook.com/YourLifeAudit/

For this branding project, I worked with Laura MacSweeny at Laura MacSweeny Brand & Marketing. This was a new working style approach than the usual format, as Laura had already defined the brief clearly in terms of tone of voice and brand messaging that she had planned for the brand. It was a lovely way to work as Laura was very easy to work with and she felt I understood her brief and aims for the brand easily and that I answered the brief effectively.

Usually, I would deal directly with the client and help them to tease out their aims and vision for the brand to understand how to creatively deliver what the brand identity need. On this occasion, Laura had already established the brief really well from working with Catriona, which made it easy for me to understand what direction to go when creating the brand and how to deliver a really strong brand that met the client’s needs.

I would highly recommend working with a brand/marketing consultant like Laura as an in-between service to bridge the brand together, between client – designer – website programmer – photographer and many other parts. As on this project, for example, Laura also liaised with the website programmer in implementing the design to follow the style that we had designed for it, and the photographer to create some beautiful and sophisticated lifestyle photographs of Catriona, along with a few quirky ones to add a little fun to the brand.

If you are interested in working with Laura, her details are:
Call: +353 83 198 9626
Web: www.LauraMacSweeny.com

See Laura’s kind words about working with Clare Lynch Creative in the Testimonials section.

June 17, 2022 /

Greene’s Family Kitchen Brand Packaging

Greene’s Family Kitchen Brand Packaging Design

Greene’s Family Kitchen hand-create flavour-packed products with natural, authentic and honest origins. They use their own award-winning free-range eggs, produced on their family farm in Westmeath, and source other authentic, local ingredients for their recipes.

Greene’s handcraft all their food to ensure outstanding quality and taste before it reaches your table from their farm. These tasty and convenient meals are High in Protein and ready in just 15 minutes. They are passionate about offering consumers excellent quality products, using traditional methods and without the use of artificial additives or preservatives.

The Greene’s Family Kitchen logo is created using playful hand-written typography to emphasise how the food is made by hand. The letters link into each-other and overlap, to represent how the ingredients are sourced from local producers to come together to create each meal. There are two leaves incorporated with the type, to further emphasise the fresh and natural aspect of the products. The strapline ‘Our Kitchen to Yours’ clearly communicates the homemade and wholesome aspect of the meal quality. The logo brand-mark feels like a family – different sizes and shapes/characters, full of life and movement, non-uniform, bustling about together, but still with their own unique shapes and expressions.

For the packaging design, the kraft cardboard background communicates the naturalness of the products. The hand-drawn style further emphasises the hand-made aspect of Greene’s foods and the authenticity of the product ingredients. The watercolour images of the main ingredients in each frittata are displayed alongside the name, to provide taste cues to the consumer. The packaging communicates that this is a tasty and healthy treat, that can be enjoyed alone as one slice or shared together with friends and family.

There is a cutout heart-shape in the cardboard box/sleeve to display a large amount of the tasty frittatas and quiches within, which is appealing to customers visually on shelf. The kitchen is known as the heart of the home and another common association is the way to one’s heart is through our stomach – so go on, eat your heart out and enjoy Greene’s Family Kitchen meals 🙂

USP (unique selling point) icons are carefully placed within the packaging design. Different colours are used to indicate each flavour.

Where to Purchase:
Call into your local SuperValu stores to try these delicious meals. Greene’s Family Kitchen’s quiches and frittatas are already stocked in 17 SuperValu stores across Dublin, Meath, Westmeath & Kildare.

Dublin:
Fresh, Grand Canal Dock • SuperValu, Mount Merrion • SuperValu, Templeogue

Kildare (SuperValu stores):
Kildare • Sallins

Meath (SuperValu stores):
Enfield • Ratoath • Ashbourne • Navan • Trim • Dunshaughlin • Kells • Oldcastle

Westmeath (SuperValu stores):
Mullingar • Athlone • Monksland • Moate

See more at:

Website: www.greenesfamilykitchen.ie

Instagram: instagram.com/greenesfamilykitchen

June 13, 2022 /

Muckross Creamery Brand Packaging

Muckross Creamery is an Irish ice cream brand range, hand-crafted by the Fleming family. Their strap-line is ‘From Cow to Cone’ – communicating the freshness of their delicious ice cream.

Catherine and John Fleming live with their lovely family of six children, and of course… all their friendly farm cows, on their charming farm in Muckross, Killarney. John Fleming is a fifth-generation dairy farmer. His family have been farming in Muckross, Killarney since the 1840’s. Their mouth-watering ice cream is made using their own fresh milk, fresh cream and free-range eggs. Being a farm-based enterprise in Killarney, they source all the fresh ingredients and supplies for each scrumptious flavour of their artisan range locally, to support the local economy. Their short supply chain and values of commitment to quality and sustainable production contribute to the great taste of their ice-cream.

When they reached out to Clare Lynch Creative on re-branding, key aspects they wanted to convey were the natural and fresh qualities of their ice cream. Therefore, featuring one of their resident, friendly farm cows in their brand and packaging design was a natural progression. It was important to implement this in a well-crafted manner, to denote that they are a quality brand range of ice cream.

Further to that, the colours from the fresh ingredients used in the ice cream were used as an inspiration source to form the colour palette for the brand, along with the traditionally-associated dairy colour of blue – but freshened up in a slightly brighter and modern tone, linking with the summery feeling associated with ice cream.

Muckross Creamery Ice Cream Brand Identity & Packaging Design

The brand typography has a traditional feel to it – with a bold, rustic font selected and hand-tailored for the bespoke brandmark along with hand-written descriptors; to support the values the client wanted to convey of how the ice cream is hand-made on their farm with fresh, local ingredients. The grain texture and the hand-drawn fruit silhouettes on the packaging further support and highlight this. As their brand story is an important aspect to the brand, it is featured on the packs with a photo of the family (which has since gained a new little member!). Muckross Creamery is a Listowel Food Fair winner for it’s flavoursome and tasty ice cream, and this key USP is highlighted on the packaging. The cute tubs are earthy and recyclable, which adds to their popularity, both as it communicates the rustic, traditional qualities to consumers, and also to how they are a conscientious and sustainable company.

You can follow them on Instagram @muckrosscreamery

June 30, 2020 /

Origin Chain Brand Identity

Origin Chain addresses a key consumer need: trust, offering blockchain-enabled software solutions to problems of real world asset authentication / proof-of-origin in export markets. In a distributed trust system this info-flow is called the value chain.

Origin Chain needed a brand identity created as they entered a more public phase of their company, where they would be business networking at events such as Enterprise Ireland’s ‘Innovation Arena’ at the National Ploughing Championships and tech summit event ‘Uprise’.

Not everyone understands areas such as blockchain, therefore they wanted the brand to be so well communicated that even a child could understand it, with the viewpoint that children are often quicker to absorb new technologies and communicate them to adults.

They have two sub-brands that sit under Origin Chain (Volunteer Passport and Verify by O.C.), and needed brandmarks for these in order for all three to work together as a family.

On reviewing Origin Chain’s needs and values, they wanted to be perceived as trustworthy, new-tech and user-friendly. Their software allows direct online transactions along a secure blockchain. These transactions are transparent and can be viewed by anyone.

A good way to envision this is to picture a value chain of a food item. E.g.; a banana you purchase with a barcode. On scanning the barcode, you can view the trail of where it has originally come from – from the farmer who picked it, to each input along the way, up until to the store delivery. It provides a sense of reassurance of knowing the root source of an item along the chain and be able to openly view it’s journey. With Volunteer Passport, it enables people in the volunteer sector to track and share their voluntary work. It enables a verification system, which allows one easy authorized and verified passport for all workplaces.

Factors considered were as follows:

Representing the links of a block chain as a strong, graphic symbol. The links also representing trust and security, a key value of Origin Chain.
The feeling of movement within the chain, emphasizing the interactive process of the blockchain technology.
Overlays of colours within the logo represent the transparency within Origin Chain’s software – the trust of anyone being able to see everything within the process.
Subtle hidden circles within the links represent eyes – the observing eye of the open visibility features of blockchain.
Closed links locked in to each-other to show solidarity of how when data is entered into a blockchain, it cannot be removed and is there forever.
Use of blue as the link colour, to further denote trust, the green tones signify the verification of the green light signaling approval.
For ‘Verify by O.C.’, the same brand style is used to create a tick of approval of the verification process.

The client was very happy with how the end result met the brief requirements, her feedback was as follows:

“I’m very pleased with how they look together. It’s been a real pleasure to work with you. As well as being a wonderful talent, you’re sort of unflappable too. The very best kind of designer in my book.”

*This work received a graphic design award in the International Design Awards with an Honorable Mention for brand identity.

October 1, 2018 /

Marilyn Mansion Branding

Marilyn Mansion Guesthouse Brand Identity

Marilyn Mansion Guesthouse Branding

Marilyn Mansion Guesthouse is located in a beautiful, green street in Rathgar – one of the quietest area of Dublin, only 10 min bus away from the city centre. They have a fun, friendly, welcoming and calm environment.

Their unique point of difference is that their name and rooms are designed to celebrate some of Hollywood’s famous celebrities such as Marilyn Monroe and Marilyn Manson. Clare Lynch Creative worked with them on developing the concept behind their name by re-creating their rooms to highlight and pay tribute to these Hollywood greats, by using touches such as pop-art prints and graphics and movie-star style mirrors (Monroe-inspired) and gothic dark colour schemes with black, white and red finishing touches and accessories (Manson). This is a current work-in-progress on developing rooms one by one to embody this concept.

The visual identity incorporates the classic shape of the actual guesthouse, as a compact, memorable shape, which holds the ‘Marilyn Mansion’ name and uses a classic 50s-style script font and 50’s style classic pastel colour palette to create a dreamy, fantastical feel connecting to people’s love of Hollywood glamour and stardom. The business cards include a map as a practical, compact leave-behind sales tool for tourist offices in Dublin.

The client was very happy with the additional input and ideas that developed for their guesthouse, from working together on the brand identity.

March 28, 2018 /

BK Coaching Branding

Brid Kehoe Coaching

Brid Kehoe Coaching are a holistic coaching practise who support clients in taking steps forward to change for the better and help them to uncover new routes to get there. They guide clients to improve wellbeing and focus, change career and much more through support, encouragement and introducing new creative strategies.

The arrow in this identity lockup represents how Brid Kehoe Coaching focus clients in an upwards direction in their life; the subtle smile and bright colours communicate the positivity and fresh outlook that they bring to all their clients.

The visual identity kit includes the stationery suite and brand guidelines featuring the photography style, visual language, typography and colour palette which maintain a consistent brand style through all BK Coaching’s communication and points of contact with their potential clients.

See also Brid Kehoe Coaching Brand Booklet and BK Coaching Client Toolkit is to follow soon.

*This work received a graphic design award in the International Design Awards with an Honorable Mention.

February 21, 2018 /

CashAnalytics Re-Brand

CashAnalytics Re-Brand & Brand Guidelines

CashAnalytics Re-brand, Brand Guidelines & Marketing Collateral

CashAnalytics build software that solves problems using the latest cloud and web based technologies, that help large companies manage their day-to-day treasury, risk and compliance challenges in an efficient and controlled manner. They work with a broad spectrum of organisations ranging from mid-tier private equity backed companies to stock market listed multinational enterprises. They are experts in corporate cash and treasury management, compliance, software development, customer service and project management.

They liked their existing logo to some extent, but wanted a more modernised look and feel, to ensure their logo was contemporary and communicated how the services they offer use the latest software technology to create results in a fast time-frame compared to their competitors. To create this, the bars from the treasury building in the original logo were used to stand alone as a strong analytics symbol, along with the cleaner, modernised Futura typeface. This created a new, modern CashAnalytics logo, which still easily links to be an evolution of their previous logo. There is a secondary version of their logo, which includes their strapline ‘Cash and Liquidity Forecasting’, for more specific uses.

The brand was then further developed across stationery, infographics, web graphics, eNewsletters, eBooks, brochures, exhibition graphics and brand guidelines, to roll out the re-brand in a consistent manner across all CashAnalytics collateral. The client was very happy with the new streamlined result across all their points of contact with clients.

February 19, 2018 /

Polski Bread Packaging

POLSKI Bread was created by authentic Polish bakery Inter Europol, exclusively for Tesco consumers. Known for their taste, purity, and authenticity, they’re the largest clean-label bakery in Poland, producing real slow-rise sourdough bread and other bakery products using traditional stone-baking methods for over 30 countries worldwide.

The brief was to design a new packaging brand for a range of Polish bread to be launched in Tesco stores across the UK. The main target audience is consumers who love Polish food, therefore it was important to ensure that the branding made a clear, instant connection to Poland, for strong shelf stand-out.

Some factors considered to answer this brief include:
– Using the colour palette of the Polish flag (with colour variants per flavour) / the use of white to represent its’ clean label benefit.
– Packaging shape designed to reveal the bread’s natural goodness.
– Featuring the Polish bird mascot – with wings formed from grain, a bread-shaped body and a baker’s dough-shaped hat.
– Simplified folk-art style ‘Wycinanki’ illustration.
– Traditional Polish typography in a modern style, containing an earthy, grain texture signifying the bread’s wholesomeness.
– Consistency across four different shaped packs, for strong brand impact.

The result is engaging design, carefully tailored to their target audience.

*This work received a graphic design award in the Frēsh 18 Design Awards.

*Featured on The 100 Archive and Packaging Design of the World.

February 15, 2018 /

BK Coaching Brand Booklet

Brid Kehoe Coaching Brand Booklet

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BK Coaching Brand Book & Marketing Collateral

This booklet was designed to communicate BK Coaching’s brand mission and values of their aim to improve their client’s lives by helping them to choose a direction which leads them towards their goals and to find happiness in their lives. Brid Kehoe Coaching work on one-on-one coaching sessions with individual clients and also work with groups, both in the work environment and in youth work, empowering people to grow and become the best and happiest version of themselves. This booklet evokes and carries across the same feelings of joy, passion and enthusiasm for life that the BK Coaching brand represent.

See also Brid Kehoe Coaching Brand and BK Coaching Client Toolkit is to follow soon.

*This work received a graphic design award in the International Design Awards with an Honorable Mention.

February 12, 2018 /

NZ Channels Branding

NZ Channels Brand Identity

The aim with NZ Channels was to create an identity for a company who provides an online media and television network of all the towns and cities in New Zealand. NZ Channels provides videos, links and information on past and upcoming events in each town.

The viewer can go online and watch televised events in the town that they are interested in, whether it is their hometown or a town they will be visiting. The website also provides various other information from each town so that it is an easy online information source.

As it online-based, and a transfer from one media source to another, I chose a pixelated look for this logo. It is also designed to be open to animation as it will be seen in an interactive media platform.

*Freelance whilst at UGP Design

February 1, 2018 /

Branding