Illustrative Branding and Packaging Project

This project was shortlisted and received a judges

commendation in the Creative Conscience Awards 2020

The climate crisis is here and we all know about it. Extinction Rebellion and Greta Thunberg are helping us make huge strides in the right direction but not every household connects with their particular brands of rhetoric. Many parents feel helpless and overwhelmed by the vast amount of information available. Parents worried about their children’s future want to be part of the solution but may not know how.

In order to really tackle the climate crisis all of us need to be on board and active. The Climate Carton is aimed at children aged 7-10 and their parents and will reach families across the UK through schools. Following a climate action lesson in PHSE a Climate Carton will be handed out to each student for them to take home. The carton provides easy, actionable steps to start living a more sustainable lifestyle. Both adults and children learn through engaging activities both within, and outside, the home.

THE CLIMATE CARTON PROJECT

Children will learn how to make actionable changes in their homes and lifestyles to live more sustainably, taking steps with effects that will go beyond their own home. By engaging both children and parents, separately and together there are more opportunities to encourage positive change for future generations. Approaching parents and children through school enables a wide reach and is an easy entry point into families throughout the UK, starting with a lesson in school as part of the curriculum.

Research of the parental audience has shown that they are looking for digestable information and things they can read after the children are in bed and fit within their schedule. They already have busy schedules and eating into a parent’s limited free time would be counter productive. Therefore, all the activities, reading a products in this carton are designed to fit into busy family life.

The carton itself is made of tetrapak. Allowing it to be mass produced at low cost while still being evironmentally friendly and suitable for the project. It was important that the carton itself was waterproof with the first of the children’s climate carton challenges being to repurpose their carton as a planter. The pretty floral design across three faces of the carton make it nice to have on the windowsill while the children learn about home grown food.

The carton is 160x160x200mm.

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THE PARENT

Parent to two children aged 7 and 10. Works full time in a mid-weight professional position but is sometimes able to collect their children from school. Otherwise they stay at the after-school club or get collected by a friend or family member. They live in a suburban area and take their children to swimming lessons at the weekend before doing the weekly supermarket shop. They try to cook healthy family meals everyday while the children do their homework, but sometimes life gets on top them and they end up grabbing something from the freezer. They enjoy spending a few hours together with their children in the evening before their bedtime – often watching TV. Likes to watch live TV but also have a Netflix subscription. Watch popular evening TV shows like X Factor, Peaky Blinders, Game of Thrones etc.. Use social media (mostly Facebook) but not an awful lot. Sometimes struggle to keep on top of the housework but are a little house-proud when guests are over. They miss being able to go out for drinks with friends since having children – instead spending time with their children’s friends’ parents at after school/weekend clubs or at a play date. They enjoy going to the cinema but are usually restricted to family friendly films as they often have to take their children with them. They also enjoy doing family activities such as bike rides, picnics, visiting museums and going to activity days.

They try to keep up with the news and think it’s important for their children to be aware of current events. They worry about the future of the environment and the climate crisis, and the impact it will have on their children’s future. As a result, they believe that the climate crisis needs to be addressed immediately and want to take action. They have already taken some steps to live a more environmentally friendly lifestyle, such as recycling, using low energy bulbs and avoiding single use plastics as much as they can. They would like to make further changes but feel confused and overwhelmed by the bombardment of information currently available on sustainable living.

THE CHILD

Child age 9, with one younger sibling age 7. They both live with their parents in a house with a small garden. They take swimming lessons at the weekends and enjoy some other after school activities like gymnastics. They are beginning to develop there own opinions and have more external influences than they did when they were younger. They are therefore thinking about different things and becoming more curious, asking more broad questions about life and the world. They have a wide range of hobbies and interests - therefore this project while not be too narrow or aim to appeal at children with specific interests or upbringings - rather looking at speaking to the age group as a whole. It will also, therefore, be gender neutral.

At this age more of their learning comes from school than from home. However, it is important that school learning and home learning support one another and the two sources help children to grow into well rounded and well educated individuals. This highlights the advantage of using a pack send home from school - the education starts with the teacher, then moving to a combination of learning from parents and giving the children opportunities to learn on their own through guided activities and information.

colour palette, custom font & logo

The two-part brand defines which contents are intended for parent and which for child. The illustration style has been designed to work for both audiences, with buildable elements designed to give flexibility in layout. The custom climate carton font was designed specifically for the project - it’s fun, playful, easy to read and age appropriate. It also works well for the adult audience, looking more sophisticated in the adult colour palette.