I think that these labels are successful together because of the way they look consistent. Comparing them with the current labels on the bottle I think that these labels give them a little more personality and make it look like a fun drink because of the colours and the modern colours used on it. When you look at the really really old labels that they used it shows that they’ve come a long way in terms of design if they were to use these labels for their product.
I decided to experiment with some compositions of the front label for my product of design. I chose Pimms as my product to redesign because the original label appears very simple and very boring. The label has not a lot to do with the product so I thought I would add my own little twist to it.
With my first logo composition I chose to use a brush in the shape of a leaf so create a grass like effect because people put mint in Pimms so this represents the mint in the drink. I chose to create small vector drawings of the fruit that I know go in to Pimms so these are lemon, lime, strawberry, and orange. I placed the icons around the logo Pimms to make it look like a neat composition but I do not see it to be successful. I tried to add an orange/brown background because of the colour of the drink when it is added to lemonade but it doesn’t look too great.
For my second composition I simply changed the background from Orange to white. I prefer this arrangement because the orange background proves there is too much colour on the page. The purpose for having the small icons for the fruit that is included in the drink is to add colour to the label. However having the Orange background gave it too much colour which is why I have turned it to white. I prefer this because it also makes the red Pimms label stand out.
For my third composition I chose to get rid of the leaves and change the layout of the fruit icons around the Pimms circle. I think that this is a little too simple in terms of looking back at the original logo because of the white space matching to the white space of the original logo. I think that this one is good in terms of minimalism but in terms for an actual final design, it doesn’t meet the expectations I have set for myself.
The fourth composition, I took away the icons apart from the lime and moved it into the middle of the Pimms circle. I don’t like this design because of the green and red. Although they are considered complimentary colours I do not think that there are at the right hues to be considered a match. I think this idea of a composition is not a good one and maybe yellow wedges on their own may look a little better.
My fifth composition was the same as the same idea as the lime except I didn’t have the outside of the fruit there and I coloured it in yellow instead of green. I think that this works better because of the contrasting colours. Red and yellow may not be complimentary colours but they work well together like black and white because the yellow is significantly brighter than the red. I still think that this is too simple to go against the original label. However there could be a fix to this design as I really like it. If the segments were the colours of the fruit that go in the drink, I can still have an icon behind the logo as well as keeping it simple.
My sixth composition consists of exactly what I wanted to test in the previous example. By changing the segments to the colours of the icons that I originally had on the logo, it gives the logo a sense of colour and I think that this completes the Pimm’s circle. All I need to do now is add the mint leaves, because I liked those at the beginning and add other information to it.
I tried something different with this one before I carried on with the others. I chose to put a Union Jack behind the Pimm’s circle, but remove the circle completely and change the text to white. I thought this might be a good experiment because of a previous bottle design that Pimm’s used. I do not like it because the segments are not contained by the circle, and the white on yellow strains the eyes a little. I also think that this is too much because there is a lot going on in terms of colour.
My seventh composition consisted of added the No.1 Cup and the James Pimm signature over the top to complete the logo. This is one of the things that should be carried over from the old bottle because of the way it is recognised and advertised. I like the way No.1 Cup stands out on top of the bright colours because it is the darkest colour. I also think that the lighter text over the top makes it looks a little better because it makes the black text not too striking and standing out too much. By adding the leaves in the background it gives the label some depth because the actual round artwork is in front of them so you can physically see the layers. This is my final composition for my front label.
Now that the front label is complete its now time to work on the back label. I think that the leaves from the front label should be in the same place so that the design is consistent and there is a similar theme throughout. Some bottles have completely different front and back labels where the shape or the design will be completely different.
This is what I have made myself based on the actual diagram on the back of the Pimm’s bottle
All that I will be copying over is there really important information like the Drink Responsibly graph and the bar code obviously because every product that sells in a supermarket always has a bar code, otherwise how else will you be able to scan it.
After adding some more stuff from the bottle I have come up with two different layouts for the back label.
I prefer the second one because there seems to be a little more room and some more white space on the label. Sometimes it’s good to have a little white space on the label because then there isn’t too much going on. There might be a little too much going on anyway because of all the leaves at the bottom, but that makes the bottle look consistent because it’s on the front of the label as well.
After choosing which layout I liked I chose to put the Pimms watermark on the back of the label so that it added a little something else to the label. I think these labels are really successful in terms of remastering a product.
Seven different Pimm’s products have been produced and the only thing that is different about them is their base alcohol. Only nos. 1, 6, and a Winter Cup based on No. 3 remain.
Pimms No. 1 Cup = Based on Gin
Pimms No. 2 Cup = Scotch whisky
Pimms No. 3 Cup = Brandy
Pimms No. 4 Cup = Rum
Pimms No. 5 Cup = Rye whisky
Pimms No. 6 Cup = Vodka
Pimms No. 7 Cup = Tequila
History
A farmer’s son from Kent, called Pimm, became the owner of an osyter bar in London and he offered a tonic as an aid to digestion, serving it in a small tankard known as a “No. 1 Cup”, which is behind Pimm’s name of No. 1 Cup.
Pimm’s began large-scale production in 1851 to keep up with sales in other bars and it began selling commercially in 1859.
Pimm’s extended their range, using other spirits as bases for new “cups”. In 1851, Pimm’s No. 2 Cup and Pimm’s No. 3 Cup were introduced. After WWII, Pimm’s No. 4 Cup was invented, followed by Pimm’s No. 5 Cup and Pimm’s No. 6 Cup in the 1960s. Pimm’s products 2 to 5 were phased out due to reduced demand in 1970 after the new oweners, “The Distillers Company” had taken control.
Label Design
In terms of label design, I think that the label for Pimm’s is really boring. I don’t like that it is white and red and plain. The label doesn’t represent Pimm’s at all and I know it looks more like the old labels, as seen above, more than anything else but if the bottle had a little more going on with it, like the limited edition Union Jack label, then people would be more attracted to it or at least not have to ask if a pub or bar does Pimm’s because they would be able to see it straight away.
Broker’s Gin is a premium London dry gin. The label itself looks very stereotypical and traditional because of the well dressed man on the side, which makes me think of older times where men were expected to dress like that all the time. This bottled product’s recognisable aspect is it’s lid, which is topped with a hat, see below.
Bulmers Cider has a wide range of flavours but that doesn’t change their physical label design. Here is a bottle of crushed red berries and lime. The bottle is red, for red berries, and has some green aspects on it for the lime part of the drink. This makes a good label because of colour connotation and I think that it contributes to customers remembered which flavour they like or which flavours and pub or club does from afar without having to read the labels.
Metaphoric Typography has become one of my favourite things in the Type & Image module and I have created a variety of words using Adobe Illustrator. The first one was the Moustache.
This was a really successful image created in Illustrator in just 20 minutes. I first got my shape and word and used Envelope Distort on them so that the word would take shape of the actual moustache.
I then duplicated the layer and put a notepaper effect on the top layer in greyscale and image traced it as well to give it a simpler and bumpier effect.
Next I colour the grey bits in brown and I used the pucker and bloat tool to make the letters look spiky.
And then I coloured the underneath layer in brown and feathered the top layer to make it look a little furrier and there you have the final image!
Here are some other metaphoric typography pieces that I have done.
Type can be inserted into an image to make it look like it was actually there or interacting with the objects in the image, for example clouds, water, shadows, roads, fences, etc.
The one that I chose was water and I chose the quote: Elegance is not being noticed, it’s about being remembered.
I created a shadow underneath the letters so that it looked like it was being reflected in the water and I found it worked really well.
Small bottled beers have very different bottle designs to each other. I think that some of the bottled beers design go unnoticed because most people focus on spirits and liqueurs when it comes to alcohol packaging or lagers.
I like the Budweiser beer bottle design because of the contrast between the brown bottle and the red label. This makes to product noticeable because the red is such a bright colour compared to the clear bottles that Corona and Desperados use. I think that the advantage of having a clear glass bottle is that you can see the product you are drinking, you can’t really see through a brown bottle. I think that a green bottle is inbetween the two. You can see what is in a green bottle under a certain light, but if you’re drinking in a dark pub or club then it’s difficult to see anything in your drink. I like the label on Corona because it is really plain and simple and uses a greyscale colour scheme from what the image shows. I also think that the Peroni colour label is good because the blue and the red on the label contrast with the green bottle.
I think that what makes a good noticeable bottled beer product is that the label contrasts the bottle otherwise you won’t see it straight away. Even looking at the backs of the bottles, there are some that stand out more than the others like Budweiser and Peroni because the bottle is darker than Corona and Desperados.
This is the bottle for Captain Morgan’s Spiced Gold Rum.
This is the bottle for Captain Morgan’s Rum.
They are very similar in terms of what the product is, the only changes I can see in the label design is the colour of the background and the text on the bottle . The Spiced Gold version has a lighter background and the text is darker whereas the Dark Rum version has a black background and lighter text on it. I think that the use of the colour black on the Dark Rum version is good because of the colour of the product. I don’t like rum, so I wouldn’t not drink a very dark coloured rum so if the label is black, I definitely would not go near it. However, the Spiced Gold rum is a lighter version of the Dark Rum that Captain Morgan’s does. I like the Spiced Gold rum more than I like the Dark rum so ultimately there is a different target audience in the products already. People who drink rum, and people who don’t drink rum.
The Kopparberg range is a very well designed cider range, in my opinion. I think that the bottles have a nice label colour scheme. The dark grey labels with a border that is a similar colour to the bottle itself has a nice touch because you can then put anything on the grey part of the label and it would still look good. The images used on the bottle are the fruits that are in the drink itself which I think is a good way of informing the customer as to what is in the drink they have bought. This is a good example of packaging because of the informative side of the product and the colour scheme depending on the fruit or the colour of the product, even though you can’t see through the dark green glass.
RWise Designs 