When I think of summer, I think of bright yellow potato chip bags, juice boxes covered in cartoon surfers and colorful cookie boxes. The brands of my childhood represent a special brand of American summer nostalgia.
Spending early summer in London is being fitted with someone else’s nostalgia. I walk into the grocery stores here, to encounter the world of British snack packaging, where the cartoon characters of my American youth are replaced with pastels, happy fonts and simply designed packaging. Where America likes aggressive cheerfulness, the sort that gives you a tooth ache just looking at it, England likes quiet whimsy, with curly fonts and desaturated colors.
Early on in this trip, it became clear to me that redesigning Little Debbie Nutty Bars—a flakey chocolate peanut butter snack—for a British audience would be a challenge. The packaging is the perfect example of American summer nostalgia, with its yellow gingham background, bright red font and safe rectangular box. Examining the British snack section, with its row of digestives, Nutella bars and Jaffa cakes, I realized I was in for a challenge. Initially, I was at a loss of what to do.
A few days later, the group of students overseas and I met Chris Griffin, the head of pi global, a global branding and design agency. He spoke about the power of branding and packaging design to sell products. One key point in his presentation struck with me and led me to a design breakthrough. He spoke about the power of nostalgia, how so often industry professional discount the importance of nostalgia and tradition with long-running products. Brands want to look ahead, without considering what came before. When an agency redesigns or repositions a brand with a long history too fast, it breaks the brand’s core values and essentially the reason why it sells.
“I realized through this early process that redesigning a package for an international audience is not just about looking at design sensibilities, it’s about understanding a culture, understanding the feelings and images that a package can evoke.”
After the presentation, I thought about how I could translate what I learned from Chris to my Nutty Bar problem. I started by thinking about what Nutty Bars meant to me. I thought about my childhood summers, drenched in the heat and humidity of a Clemson July day, eating Nutty Bars with sticky fingers in front of my neighbor’s trampoline after an afternoon of playing. The packaging reflects that feeling of easy summer happiness, one held by generations. It’s bright and old fashioned.
I wondered how I could evoke that summer nostalgia for an English audience. Obviously, Nutty Bars are not a staple of English summers, but I wonder if I could evoke that image through the packaging.
With that thought process in mind, I was able to begin redesigning Nutty Bars. I talked to English friends, went into grocery and retail stores, and looked at the packaging of similar summer treats. I combined the simple design sensibilities I saw in that English packaging with images of the perfect English summer. I sketched picnic baskets, bunting and bright blue skies with pastel colors. From there, the design really started coming along.
I realized through this early process that redesigning a package for an international audience is not just about looking at design sensibilities, it’s about understanding a culture, understanding the feelings and images that a package can evoke.
Next: Emma takes a weekend trip to Paris and finds inspiration in the country’s grocery stores.