Before and After

Whilst I was at the Food and Drink Expo the other day I managed to get a look at the new range of packaging for Alex James' cheese range. Not quite ditching his rock and roll past just yet as the bassist with Blur, but having purchased a farm a few years ago it seems he is ready to compete with the likes of Tyrells and Jimmys Farm by producing his own range of foods.

The new design is by Dzine Mafia from Aesop. In her own words:

“For far too many years the shelves of consumer stores have been filled with mediocre and uninspiring packaging design. Design that has been held back, restrained and killed by brand managers and account handlers with no creative bravery. That are frightened to let their products puff their chest out, stand up and be different and instead just want to follow the crowd to become a makeshift replica of the brand leader.”

"I wanted to keep the design quite simplistic and let the pack shout its message from the shelf with a fun and playful feel. A hand finished font was a must along with blasts of bright colour. The blue from the existing packaging still worked as a good consistent colour across the packs and created a nice contrast with the cheeses seen through the larger pack window. As Alex talks a lot about cheese I made this more of a feature using a bold, blocky speech bubble. Then to finish off a simple, little illustration to emphasise the flavor. The design lets the packs stand out as something different to the usual cheeses. They allow some personality to show through and would appeal to an adult audience willing to try new flavours as well as kids who I’m sure would enjoy eating the ‘Real Cheese Rebel’ – Tomato Ketchup Cheddar." - Dzine Mafia

I do like the new design but personally, I don't think it will appeal to the adult audience. It looks like something designed for kids with the jaunty handmade type and colours. I get the fun aspect of it and the speech bubble idea but if the target was to appeal to a more adult market, I am still not convinced. What it does convey is the personality of the producer himself and has got that comedic value to it.

They are a definite improvement on the previous designs:

 I like the idea of using the capital 'A' and the the cheese knife shape but I don't like the type that is  on the cheese knife itself. I can see what they were trying to achieve by mimicking the type you would find on cutlery but I don't particularly like the 'ALEX JAMES presents'. I would have lost the word presents and made his name look like it was actually part of the knife or even had one made with his name engraved into it and then photographed it.

It's a close call with these two very different approaches. The earlier design wouldn't look out of place in Waitrose or an up market delicatessen. I would have preferred a slight change to the original and something that wasn't so child-like in its appearance. As it is going to be sold in Asda, I can see how it will sit amongst the other brands but from a price perspective, I can't see how it can still command a higher price compared to others.