New brand identity and packaging for a growing and characterful business producing handmade chilli products and dried chillies.
From 2017
“I cannot recommend Jeff highly enough. When he started working on my branding, the first thing he did was spend time getting to know me and what I really wanted for my products. This foundation allowed ideas to grow and I am delighted with the end result: highly individualised, detailed and unique labels which reflect me and my business. I have had the most amazing positive feedback on the designs. Since my re-brand, my business has gone from strength to strength.”
Dr Pam Davenport, ‘Head Chilli Keeper’, Chilli Zoo
Old packaging and labelling
When asked to design the new labels for Chilli Zoo’s range of chilli jams, oils and dried chillis, I immediately latched on to the the name, which I thought was excellent.
Most competitors had names based on their location, so Chilli Zoo really stood out from the crowd. But aside from referring to the company founder as the ‘Head Chilli Keeper’, the zoo idea was noticable only by its absence – and the existing labelling lacked anything visual to bring it to life.
New packaging and labelling
The new branding and labelling aimed to capture a classic zoo or circus poster feel, with product descriptors written in a way that married a characteristic of the featured creature with key aspects of the product.
The imagery centred around zentangle illustrations of animals. These were beautifully drawn for the project by illustrator Daniel Howarth, with an image of a chilli then replacing part of each animal’s anatomy.
Turning up the heat on the dried chillies
Designing the labels for Chilli Zoo’s range of 12 different dried chillies involved the challenge of how to communicate the heat level of each one. In addition to a simple 1-6 scale shown using dots, three levels of colour were used to convey the idea of low (yellow), medium (orange) and high (red) levels of heat. This was supported by the use of three further zentangle illustrations – a lion looking stoic, snarling or roaring.
