Wild Planet Sardines

Packaging Design

I redesigned Wild Planet sardine packaging for three different flavors of sardine, and some digital marketing to accompany it. (This was a school project.)

Styles

Final Packaging

Packaging with Dieline

Digital Marketing

Concept

The Wild Planet brand is deeply rooted in Northern California, where there is a history of sardine fishing, and the brand’s visual language reflects the feeling of that environment, both natural and man-made.

This packaging design distinguishes Wild Planet from other brands using a playful display typeface that captures the slightly off-kilter, handmade aesthetic of fishing and climate activists. The muted ocean and sardine scale tones contrast with bright colors to further differentiate the brand. Wavy shapes emphasize Wild Planet’s fresh-from-the-sea promise. The slab serif body text hearkens back to some of the architecture of the original sardine canneries on the California coast, while also being easily readable. Minimal text highlights sustainability and nutrition, on the front, side, and back of the package. Flavor information is consistently in the same area of the package and in different colors for easy differentiation.

Keep reading for my process…

Brief

Wild Planet is a brand of tinned fish based in Northern California. They use sustainable fishing practices and educate consumers about protecting the ocean. Their sardines are priced mid-range.

The target audience for Wild Planet is Americans who are conscious about the environment but still consume animal products, and who are drawn to sardines because of their high nutrient content.

Wild Planet’s current flavor labeling isn’t consistent. It can be especially hard to scan a range of products on the shelf when they are all relatively small, so the challenge was to find a design flexible enough to work across many flavors and to distinguish each flavor clearly, all on a small box. In addition, sardine packaging can be pretty flamboyant, and Wild Planet’s current packaging is utilitarian compared to others. The new Wild Planet packaging must distinguish itself, highlighting sardines as a nutritious food and Wild Planet as a sustainable brand.

Research Insights

My research took a few different paths. I researched old-timey maritime aesthetics, the California coast where Wild Planet sardines are from, and climate activist signs and art. I have always had fun looking at the wide variety of clever and fun high end sardine containers, so I also dove deeper into these designs, which are well documented on the internet thanks to a recent sardine craze on Tik-Tok.

Each of these paths inspired my final design, but the California coast was the most interesting to me, as I saw pictures of the old canneries along the coast and the typefaces they used in their architecture.

I found the silvers and green-ish blues of sardine scales and their habitat to be magnificent. I wanted to pay homage to these colors.

Moodboards

Sketches

Digital Drafts - Round 1

Digital Drafts - Round 2

Challenges

Feedback I received, and how I responded:

There was a lot of white space on my initial design. I looked at the packaging as a whole on the dieline and tried to create more rhythm with the colors and white space, adding more blocks of color.
Flavor colors would be fun to see more of, to enhance visual appeal, and aid customers in distinguishing and choosing the right product. I made bigger blocks of color on the front, sides, and back, and while I was doing so, added more wavy shapes to maintain the ocean feel. I still kept a lot of the main gray color because I still wanted to tie the product back to its original environment.

Reflection

In my last round of edits I played with changing the shapes and rotating the letters of “Sardines” on the front slightly to make them more playful and wonky. I’d like to go further with this.

Looking at my moodboards, there’s also more I could have done with worn wood, water, or other textures.

It would be fun to pursue some of the other designs from my early sketches and digital drafts. There is something about a small sardine box that lends itself to experimentation!