Featured image for Crit* Önos

Crit* Önos

by Richard Baird on 05/13/2013 | 4 Minute Read

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Founded in 1903 as a wine and soft drinks business, Önos now produces jams, marmalades, juices and pickled vegetables from the small village of Tollarp, Sweden which are then sold throughout Scandinavia. To convey this lengthy heritage and emphasise the personality of the brand, multidisciplinary design agency Amore developed a new packaging solution that embraces a traditional illustrative approach, frames it with good quality, contemporary typography, a good eye for space, a simple layout, and the distinctive finish of a die cut label and tab.

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While returning to a classic illustrative technique to convey tradition is not unusual or unique, Amore’s approach clearly has an appropriate retrospective appreciation and eye for authenticity that, set within the context of this particular label and range, appears fresh whilst retaining communicative effectiveness.

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The illustrations shown in Amore’s project photography have really nice sense of light and shadow, fine organic texture and natural, earthy colour. These details have been suitably enhanced by plenty of surrounding space, sharp white background and a dominate size that delivers a bold elemental quality that suggests a purity of ingredients. Whether bespoke or sourced from the past they succeed in having a period authenticity which is enhanced by what looks like a slight reproduction deterioration, as if it has been pulled from the pages of a vintage book.

The botanical accuracy of these are juxtaposed alongside the loosely rendered ribbons of ingredients that make up the borders. This simple pen work adds a playful, creative flourish which feels more personal, much like the hand drawn detail you would perhaps expect to see on small-scale batch produced labels.

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A combination of broadly spaced serif set along a curved baseline, a well structured serif stamp with date and ‘over-print’ treatment, and the heavier weight of a larger and tighter serif, establish origin, heritage and tradition, while a really well drawn/selected script and the neutral efficiency of a bold uppercase sans-serif contrasts individual fluidity and flourish with an everyday sense of commodity. A smart union that deliver layers of typographical personality that compliment their content.

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These illustrative and typographic elements are executed across a die cut solution that mixes an organic rough cut edge detail, the craft qualities of an uncoated, tactile material choice with a fine surface texture and pastel colours on the reverse, the consistency of a geometric hexagonal form, the perception of luxury and quality associated with purple, the timelessness and restraint of white and the natural earthy colour of the fruits. All perfectly well resolved to convey a regional batch-produced sense of quality.

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Although tradition and locality is a category mainstay, and simplicity and honesty frequently achieved through a homemade design naïvety, Amore resolves these with a design sophistication that appropriately draws from established market conventions which form a contemporary and cohesive whole without compromising small-scale origins.

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Richard Baird

Richard is a British freelance design consultant and writer who specialises in logos, branding and packaging. He has written for Brand New and Design Week, featured in Computer Arts magazine, Logology, Los Logos, Logolounge, The Big Book of Packaging and runs the blogs BP&O and Design Survival.

Twitter:@richbaird

Blog: BP&O

Portfolio:richardbaird.co.uk