T2
 |
| T2 Shelves |
At T2, we’re about reinventing and reimagining the humble tea leaf, and sharing our teas with anyone who’ll listen. We’re inspired by the people we meet, and the far-flung places we visit. We get a kick out of taking ancient tea rituals and reimagining them, bringing them to a modern tea table. Every cup we brew is a chance to make tea more enjoyable, more accessible and more experimental; it’s our opportunity to connect, understand and share with the world our love for a better cup of tea, everyday.
They make tea a vibrant, new and innovative concept, contrasting against the connotations assosiated with tea drinkers. The packaging focuses on simplistic but complimentry design, not only taking into consideration the way it will be presented on shelves but the actual tea itself.
These miniture pots are the perfect example of how the packaging, in format of a small tin, could be adapted by using minimal colour to still make an impact. These tins can be picked up and assembled together to make a mix and match style of gift for the recipient. In order to keep all of the tins able to do this they all consist of a similar minimalitic illustrative base design. Each design also had the logo embossed into the top of each tin, this is another way of altering the metal not only through the use of colour.
T2 also use
metal in another series of packaging, within this series the tins are larger,
which is done so the products can be used after original use to be recycled. This
is something the brief was keep on doing, as well as being reusable by using
this technique T2 are keeping their brand name and visuals evident in the consumers’
homes long after the tea which has been purchased is gone. The tins information
and decoration are all created using debossing of the metal. Alongside a re-colorations
of the metal depending on the blend of tea inside, each pot is easily differentiated
through subtle methods, adding a sense of luxury to the set.
John Lewis
John Lewis’
own brand of luxury teas were designed in a very traditional way, contrasting
against the more modern designs of T2 packing their designs features curved tin
pots. This is to resemble their cliental, the richer older person, as this is
the traditional design they would be enticed towards. Each of the colors are
muted and therefore blend in to the shelf, although this is mentioned in
the brief as something that should be tackled the key colour themes from most
of the initial research I have done show use of these dull tones; in attempt to
visually imply a traditional and conservative nature, which the luxury market
is aimed towards. Some of the less conventional teas are coated in ‘William
Morris’-esc printed surface patterns, yet rather than visually exciting the
audience it simply adds this already assumed ‘older’ demographics that they are
in the right section.
Whittard’s approach
to packaging takes a slightly more modern approach. Whilst retaining the flora
and fauna prints found in other ‘more established’ brands they embrace the idea
of playing with composition. Through making the details of the artwork larger
and debossed, the tins are made more modern, complimented by brighter colours
than those on the shelves next to them they smaller tins stand out as being a
happy medium, therefore opening themselves more open to a wider audience. The labels
themselves retain a traditional manner, yet again contrasted with the use of a
sans serif type, giving these further unusual mixes of what the audience can
expect.
Harvey Nichols
Harvey
Nichols use a timeless design for their own branded coffee tins, this is
because of their varying cliental base. Harvey Nichols is known for their
luxury products, which bring in a variation of younger hipster types wants the
best and most elegantly designed products, and also the older generation
looking for their luxury well designed familiar products. Through designing their
products with this similar monochrome style with simplistic labels the
designers are reaching out to both targets. Yet by doing so they create a
product that could be found on any shelf of any supermarket not making the
product stand out as luxury against their competitors on the same shelf.
Rare Tea
Co. is a luxury tea brand that is sold in various department stores
across the country. They in-fit with the style of other brands surrounding it,
i.e. they have the same container structure as the Harvey Nichols own brand
coffee, giving the audience a sense of familiarity. The colours used, once
again are muted, and don’t say ‘Rare’ to me, only No.1 had a different colour
scheme featuring the bright red, making the tin stand out. Although because
this isn’t done across the whole brand the tin starts to look like it isn’t part
of the same brand as the others. If different colours are used there should be
a variation of such, this is something I will be experimenting with in my
designs.
Brew Tea
Co. is one of the best-selling teas in the luxury section. People respond well
to the tea as it is linked to the visuals of a time where the target audience
were branding of this product in their peak time visually resembles this
branding now. Although because of this it takes away the visual links to luxury
that are associated with this product. Compensated here with the colours used,
although because of the matted cheaper materials they have been printed on they
do not exactly represent the colours in the correct light they are trying to
achieve. This is a consideration to take into play in my design process,
colours can be used but if not used within the correct way they can hinder the
design rather than aid it. I believe the design here is an interesting concept,
by removing the visual literacy associated with luxury and traditional design
they are creating exactly that.
Tiosk is a
new brand of tea that was being released the day I went to visit Harvey
Nichols, for me this was the most interesting tea in the section. Each of the
teas were packaged in a cube, each of the cubes consisted of a similar base
design, the only thing to change throughout was the colour variations, giving a
simple change to each item gave much better brand consistency than any of the
other products that I saw. The design itself being cubed draw a similar aesthetic
to that in T2. Making me consider, in the design of my tin what shapes should I
be considering to make the product stand out and modern, whilst still retaining
luxury.
