some spooky inspiration from dee's carved pumpkins created this weekend. we wish everyone a happy + safe halloween! hope everyone gets lots of yummy treats!

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Simplified package design catches our eye and appeals to our love of freshness. This exploration of minimalism in food products identifies the main elements and aesthetics that work the best in packaging. So in this post, I showcase some amazing minimalism in food products for your inspiration.

Minimalism in Food Products

Walk into a grocery store and you’re likely to be overwhelmed by a virtual explosion of colors, images, advertisements, and product promises. With so many options available, what makes one product stand out over another?

Sometimes it’s not what the packaging adds but what it removes that counts. Simplified package design catches our eye and appeals to our love of freshness. Removing the excess places an emphasis on the product ingredients and quality, an effective marketing decision when promoting something we eat or drink.

This exploration of minimalism in food products identifies the main elements and aesthetics that work the best in packaging.

Neutrals

Think Thin bars, Bear Naked Granola, and The Fresh Pasta Company’s pasta all market themselves as healthy products. Along with losing the extra calories and unhealthy ingredients, these packages have also lost any unnecessary images and colors. See how they stick to neutrals and eliminate too much lettering:

1. Think Thin Image

2. Bear Naked Granola Image

3. Fresh Pasta Company Image

Monochromatic

For each flavor, Flackers crackers, Pop chips, and Noosa yogurt pick a corresponding bold color for each label and packaging. Paired with statement typography, and a lack of distracting graphics, the look is definitively modern:

4. Flackers Image

5. Pop Chips Image

6. Noosa Image

Izze Sodas actually changes its logo image to match the color of each beverage flavor:

7. Izze image

Nothing But the Product

For Talenti gelato, Pom Wonderful juice, and Echo Water, distinctive package shapes are enough to catch a customer’s eye. Simple logos and lettering, a lack of graphics, and clear packages allow the product itself to shine through.

8. Talenti Image

9. Pom Wonderful Image

10. Echo Water Image

The technique is often seen on water bottle packaging, to connote purity:

11. Smart Water Image

12. Voss Image

A Single Image

Justin’s Peanut Butter, Food Should Taste Good chips, and Dave’s Gourmet Sauce use a single image, indicative of each flavor while sticking to a neutral color palette of whites and blacks. By getting rid of extra colors and graphics, while sticking to classic packaging, they prove that you don’t need more than one image to stand out.

13. Justin’s Peanut Butter Image

14. Food Should Taste Good Image

15. Dave’s Gourmet Sauce Image

This approach is particularly popular for products with fruit and vegetable flavors or ingredients:

16. Brianna’s Salad Dressing Image

17. Olade Image

Vintage / Retro / Futuristic

While we may associate minimalism with modernism, the truth is that it can be used by all types of companies and products to enhance a range of different styles. Here are three examples that showcase a variety of personalities:

Vintage

Bonne Maman jam evokes a classic European look with their checkered caps and handwritten script, yet the simplicity of the packaging, colors, and label are pure minimalism.

18. Bonne Manan Image

Retro

Hi-Ball soda’s midcentury bottle shapes, typography, color, and graphics produce a streamlined look for that pops.

19. Hi-Ball Image

Futuristic

Mix 1’s health drinks combine nutritional technology with a pared down, cutting-edge look that speaks to a new wave of products and design.

20. Mix 1 Image

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wishing you all a spooktacular weekend! hoping it's filled with pumpkin carving + halloween parties! here are a few treats to inspire you this weekend as you prep your homes for halloween...

{a} place goodies in this mini tote bag by helen rawlinson; {b} fold some construction paper and cut out a few shapes to create this fun vintage cat disk, by martha stewart; {c} it's alive! frankenstein letterpress print by firecracker press; {d} hand-lettered letterpressed POEm by tag team tompkins; {e} light up your walkway or mantle with homemade luminaries, learn how with crafts by amanda. 

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Versy long day and my thought about it all.

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Passion is my script practice for today. A few quick rhythm studies and one overlay sketch for use as a template in Illustrator. Even though I start with a template everything changes as I draw in vector. Its the process of drawing live in Illustrator and going with what feels natural. Quite different than previous attempts at this style a number of years ago. All of the swash lines are naturally happening in the same manner as when I sketch with a marker on paper.





The overlay sketch used as the drawing template.

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leaya + chris were married this past weekend at the pennsylvania academy of fine arts. this fun pair sent along this inspiration a while back. we had a ball working together on a toy-inspired mark to represent them along with a package that was both bohemian and vintage, while still maintaining some traditional elements.

the stacked invite package included an invitation, rsvp postcard, folded directional/accommodation card, and a quirky little tag to tie it all together. the package was mailed in a kraft paper envelope and hand addressed in white ink by gracefully addressed.

the menu, over-sized program and thank you card follow in the invite's footsteps.

styled creative added their own magic to the night as they always do. we heard something about mini action figure bouttonieres! can't wait to see those!

happily ever after wishes to leaya + chris!

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hi all! cheyenne here, back from an incredible trip to south africa. south africa is my first home and i haven't been back in 20 years. besides the amazing reunion with cousins, aunts, uncles and friends; my husband and i explored quite a bit of the spectacular natural environments from the bush to the sea. we cuddled lion cubs, fed elephants, went shark cage diving, and enjoyed way too much of the local cuisine and wine! it was tough to leave such a beautiful country, but i'm feeling very inspired and refreshed...

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