My college recently allowed us the chance to choose a brief from the 2015 list and tackle. Working as part of a pair, my partner and I decided to choose the John Lewis brief here. What drew me to this was that it was something I had yet to experiment with: the aim of the brief was to create a new, innovative home delivery system and packaging.
After much deliberation and a lot of ideas being thrown away and developed, we decided to take something old and reinvent it to work with the company's brand. A Furoshiki wrap, traditional to the Japanese culture. Although other businesses have already used this, such as Lush and Feel Unique, we decided to create our own spin on things.
Something mentioned within the brief was the idea of creating an after life for the package: a way of keeping the brand in the home, something to act as a gift from the company to the consumer. The brand felt it important to continue to create an emotional connection to the customer, as this is what their brand is built upon. The Furoshiki wrap, with it's multiple uses, allows the customer to experiment and be creative, whilst also keeping John Lewis in their home.
Wanting to create something current, we researched into current fashion trends. Finding inspiration through iridescence, floral and deconstructed geometrics, we create a pattern on one side of the wrap. The other side, used for the outside of the packages featured the John Lewis motif and their signature green colour.
The material will be a lightweight, fair trade cotton, which sustains the John Lewis brand and creates a balance between the sleek packaging design alongside creating something ecologically and environmentally friendly. The cotton will be treated using bees wax, which is a natural and safe way of water proofing, and also adds quite a nice scent. Looking into printing techniques, there isn't yet a way of being extremely environmentally friendly, but using screen printing alongside inks that are phthalate-free is what we decided to do.
We also looked into different ways of holding a bar code for the delivery process. We wanted to create something that would aid the security of the package, and looked into different tags such as shark tagging which has gps tracking. Sticking with the theme of creating something on trend, we decided to use a copper pull tag which keeps the Furoshiki knot in place, and also allows the package to be identifiable for the delivery driver.
Finally, the Furoshiki wrap will not be as sturdy as a box, so we decided to again look into creating a box to protect the packaging. Deciding to draw all focus on the wrap itself, the box is made out of recyclable material and is quite minimal and plain. Personified with a message, "Hello, I've been waiting for you." The box is another way of engaging the customer and creating a connection. It can be returned to store or click and collect stores in order to receive some of the delivery cost back, which encourages an environmentally friendly process and allows John Lewis to promote recycling.
I think what I loved about this brief was that it was so new: it was open and allowed me to explore my strengths in graphic treatments and push my weaknesses. It was a completely different experience undertaking a competition brief when compared to a client brief, but being able to expand passed the boundaries of the brand and focus on a design that is something which the brand may not have traditionally considered made the brief more exciting. I think I also learnt a lot about myself in this project, in terms of being fascinated by other cultures and their ways and finding inspiration through that, but also how my weaknesses (such as using illustrator) are not going to hold me back. I think the final design holds a balance between the minimal, sleek and strong brand, with something that is sustainable, eco friendly and fashionable.
