Featured image for Orange You Happy To Lay Your Eyes On I(Eye) am MIKAN

Orange You Happy To Lay Your Eyes On I(Eye) am MIKAN

by Chloe Gordon on 04/06/2022 | 2 Minute Read

Inspired by the magic of "eye contact," Koichi Sugiyama and Minako Endo designed MIKAN's mandarin orange package focusing on the expressiveness of eyes. The eye-shaped stickers placed on each orange create a unique and friendly brand association, giving each piece of fruit a cheeky personality. And, to reduce food waste, each orange with a bruise or scratch is given a band-aid sticker, even furthering the personification of these quirky citruses.


This is a project of branding Citrus unshiu in Wakayama prefecture, where is one of Japan's leading mandarin orange producing areas. "I (Eye) am MIKAN" is a mandarin orange with the concept of "Eye" developed by Kadoya to create new value in what is buried in Wakayama.This product was produced by focusing on the “eye-contact” with mandarin orange as communication. Eyes are an organ that expresses emotions, and those lines of sights are important elements that connect people’s hearts. Therefore, this became a unique product differentiated it from competing products, that always keeps “eye-contact” with you and stays close to your feelings.

In order to bring out the individuality of various oranges such as taste and appearance, we stick eye-shaped stickers and bring the oranges to life. The stickers also play a role of the quality proof recognized by the connoisseur. Moreover, by making the hole in the handle of the cardboard for transportation look like eyes, we aimed for an impact that would make the eyes meet the oranges.

In Japan, if a fruit is scratched or looks bad, it is not recognized as a product and tends to be discarded. In this project, even if the oranges look bad or are not the same size, delicious ones are adopted as products, and the oranges with scratches are commercialized with a special band-aid attached to add value for pretty look. It also leads to avoiding food loss.

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