Dutch Packaging Design

Piece of cake for the urban grillmeisters behind their BBQ’s these days with the new and delicious Snack Skewers (Snack Spiesjes) from Dutch company Zwanenberg Food Group. Stepfive created the labels for this new product range. Each different taste variety has its own colour setting and the labels are placed at the top in order to have a good spot on the tasteful skewers.

Many food labels are confusing (and some downright misleading) especially with regard to animal welfare claims. To help navigate the confusion, the Animal Welfare Institute (AWI) has released A Consumer’s Guide to Food Labels and Animal Welfare.

This new guide aims to help consumers who purchase meat, dairy and eggs interpret the meaning of label claims and locate products from animals who were humanely raised and handled.
More on ‘A Consumer’s Guide to Food Labels and Animal Welfare’ here.

Already back in 2007, Anke Weiss, a Dutch modern designer who uses recycled materials, has designed a series of beautiful lights made from recycled food and drink packaging. Weiss takes – for instance – juice cartons that have been emptied of their contents and pokes holes in them, through which light will shine after the piece is completed. Recycling to the max that is.
More on this project and Anke Weiss’ work here, here and here.

A compilation of yearly design awards, this book features the best in communication and packaging design from around the world. The iF communication design awards have been conferred since 2004 by a panel of design experts from across the world. Showcased in this volume are the most outstanding examples of communication and packaging design. This yearbook presents trendsetting achievement in advertising, media, campaigns, packaging, and websites.

Read more here, or buy here.

Stepfive develops new brands and concepts for the foodbranche, beverages and luxurious products (i.e. cosmetics) on a daily basis. We analyze various markets in search of opportunities commissioned by our clients, but also on our own initiative.  This perfume “Dutch Beauty” is a fine example of said initiative and is developed to spread the wonderful sent of Dutch tulips all around the world. The shape of the bottle is based on (obviously) a tulip, the top of the bottle can be removed and the perfume can be applied by using the dispenser. The bottle is made of glass except for the top which is made of glossy plastic. Are you interested in this concept? Please contact us www.stepfive.nl

On January 1st, 2013, taxes on packaging in The Netherlands will possibly be abolished. Owing to an agreement between Dutch State Secretary Joop Atsma (Infrastructure and Environment) and the business world, manufacturers, importers and sellers of packaged products will be responsible for the costs of collection and recycling of plastic packaging over the next ten years.

Read the complete article (in Dutch).

After a successful redesign of Look-O-Look’s Flowpacks and Toppermix, the redesign and packaging for the international familybags of Look-O-Look is done by Stepfive Communication & Design too.
The Dutch candy producer with ”The most delicious candies in one bag” wanted a fun and diverting familybag, appealing for all family members, young and old. Each different bag has its own colour coding, illustrated candies on the front (drawn in realistic style) and a large window for optimal visibility of the delicious candies.

Gourmande is the consumers brand of ‘henri van de bilt vleeswaren’, who produces deli meats from single meat cuts and convenience products. Stepfive rebranded the Gourmande logo and also created four remarkable packaging labels for their range of Streaky Bacon products. These labels come with much attention for branding and meanwhile have a spot on the visibility of the products. Each label has it’s own fresh colour setting for each different taste variety.

In addition to this restyling, a new organic butter packaging design was created for Dutch company Weerribben Zuivel. Fresh and natural visuals on the packaging are showing us the origin of this organic butter: National Park ‘De Weerribben’ in The Netherlands. These visuals and the coloured shopping list on top derives from the complete restyling by Stepfive of all the other Weerribben products and herewith makes it into a coherent and appetizing product range.

A while ago, MOTI (Museum Of The Image, Breda) held an exhibit about packaging. This led to an interesting question: why is there currently a substantial shortage of packaging designers in the Netherlands? The answer can be found somewhere between ‘current art education is mainly focussed on the encouragement on autonomy instead of serving commercial goals’, and – as a logical result of this: ‘designers consider themselves belonging to a cultural avantgarde’.

In other words: packaging belongs to low-culture. Low culture = not sexy. Meanwhile, packaging specialized agencies (like ours) keep getting busier. So it’s high time to turn some persistent assumptions around by pointing out precisely how ‘sexy’ the trade of packaging really is. After all, it evokes graphic design, (strongly based on psychology), marketing, brand-development, environmental matters, innovation and (brand)activation.

So, art schools: here’s a start for an interesting discussion on what Dutch Design really can be all about. And who will be the first to flick the switch and jump into the trade that’s as design-extensive as it is a guarantee on an interesting job? In the meanwhile you can enjoy some work made by ‘commercial explorer’ Jeff Koons (shown above) and his design for body milk, by which he turned his art into ‘the daily’, instead of ‘the daily’ into art. Oh, and the first run of packaging-trained students can send their portfolio to us … but that goes without saying.