Design 4 Print Rational

I have created a fictional company – The Simple Food Company, which would be a small company that makes vegan food. I have designed three pieces of packaging that would be part of a larger range of products.

All of the packaging would be recycled and recyclable, and would be offset lithographically printed using vegetable oil based inks, as conventional mineral oil based inks are worse for the environment (and the printer’s health) and come from a non-renewable source. Each design uses only 2 spot colours to keep print costs low. I would use local printers (or the closest printer that uses vegetable oil based inks) to cut down on transport cost and emissions, and also so that any communication with them can be in person.

I tried to make any decisions based on environmental responsibility, for example I decided to package the crisps in a box/tub, as normal crisp packets aren’t recyclable.

To save paper and money I have decided to make the lid and main box of both the crisps and the biscuits on separate pieces of board. The main box will be made from one sheet and two lids will be made from another, meaning the quantity of lids will need to be half that of the main box. Obviously, I would have to talk to printer in advance to make sure that this is possible.

Inside the boxes the biscuits and crisps would have to be kept in bags. These would be made from 100% post consumer recycled polyethylene terephthalate plastic, the same material that Innocent Drinks use (only thinner).

As the company would only be small the boxes/jars would be filled by hand, meaning that they would be printed and assembled at the printers then transported to the kitchens where they would be filled and distributed. I would have to talk to the printers about the olive jar – whether or not it would be feasible for them to stick the labels on the jars or whether it would have to either be done by hand, or done by another company. I would also need to discuss how the labels are stuck to the jars, I would need to check that they can use my chosen stock, or whether they would need to use a, different, self adhesive stock.

The target audience would be people that can afford to spend a little extra on food, if they know its ethically produced and healthy (similar the organic market, which the fastest growing in Britain). I see The Simple Food Company’s products in independent whole-food shops as well chain stores such as Holland and Barrett, and even a few supermarkets like the Co-op or Waitrose.