Last singled out several design solutions, including the packaging on the Bourbon and Black Pepper barbecue sauce and the Mango Key Lime salsa as being contemporary, but with a nod to a classic style-an important design factor for a heritage brand. “We ended up with something quite different from both references, but the direction was effective in that we avoided an overly cutesy clichéd look and elevated our product, while still being fun.” “My direction for our Halloween packaging this year was for them to go a little less Harry Potter and a little more Hendrick’s Gin in look,” Last said. Hester works with Daniel Biasatti, vice president, brand creative, and Anna Last, senior vice president, creative services, to develop the vision for effective marketing. The food packaging coordinates with all the curated products on a feature to tell a story that will connect with customers. For summer, the outdoor living theme includes barbecue rubs and sauces, which are grouped with barbecue tools, spatulas and grill pans in stores. New foods are continually introduced, such as their healthy smoothies and soups featured at the beginning of the year, followed by confections and candies relating to the Easter holiday in spring. But within this defined space, it makes sense.”Ĭore foods, such as salts, pastas and breads stay on shelves year-round along with the changing seasonal and holiday items. “There is an unspoken brand guardrail that it shouldn’t go too far this way or deviate too far that way. “As a designer, it’s really fun,” Hester said about the creative freedom he feels. Their challenge is to interest the customer buying the superior knife or the best copper pan to choose the richest hot chocolate. Michael Hester, senior design manager of packaging, heads the staff of ten. Within this mega-brand, the small in-house team designs hundreds of Williams-Sonoma’s assortment of food products. A visit to Williams-Sonoma’s packaging designers finds them at corporate headquarters in San Francisco a picturesque spot with its views of sailboats anchored at Aquatic Park and tourists visiting Ghirardelli Square, famed for its ice cream and chocolate shop. The style is confident, clean and simple, reflecting the farm-to-table ethos and the niche markets of locally-sourced foods. The packaging design of Williams-Sonoma’s products, such as their Chocolate Chip Pancake & Waffle Mix, combines the brand’s relaxed sophistication with an artisanal, small-batch spirit. The luxury brand appealed to the upscale urban consumer and Williams-Sonoma expanded into home furnishings, agrarian products and a broad spectrum of specialty foods. Before Julia Child, Cuisinart and fast food crêpes became part of our culinary world, founder Chuck Williams opened his first gourmet cookware store in Sonoma, California, offering the omelet pans and soufflé molds he’d seen at shops in Paris. American families were enjoying the convenience of TV dinners and potato chip casseroles in 1956 when Williams-Sonoma introduced classic French cookware to American kitchens.
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