Sweets of the World

'Sweet of the World' is a packaging concept which combines several sweets from different countries in one gift-package. Sweet of the World promotes new tastes from cultures from all around the world.

Introduction

In the summer of 2015, when I was still a student at the University of Twente, four fellow industrial design students decided to do a project together at the weekend. Jullian and I had founded a design studio together called "Onefold" during the study and Wesley Roodink and Matthis de Wit had their own design studio as well called "Zonder Suiker". We closed ourselves off for a weekend with a stocked fridge and worked on a challenge with a lot of fun.

Year Duration 2015 3 days

The challenge

It all started with Rajea and Karisa: two students who followed a business entrepreneurship course at the University of Amsterdam. For that course they have come up with a great idea with an entire business model for a start-up company around it. The problem for them was that they didn't have any design skills themselves.

So they challenged us to create a branding and packaging design for their food-concept Sweets of the World. We accepted this challenge and created the whole design presented below in just 3 days.

Idea & target audience

The food-concept idea is as following.

A combination of several sweets from different countries combined in one gift-package, to discover new tastes and other cultures from all around the world.

The target audience for this product are tourists that shop at international airports, museums and gift shops. The packaging design should have high quality, but also playful look and feel.

The sweets

A total of five different sweets are selected for the concept. Each sweet is written in their language of origin.

• Italian Torrone (Nougat)
• Dutch Stroopwafel (Syrup waffle)
• Indonesian Nastar (Pinapple tart)
• Turkish Lokum (Turkish delight)
• American chocolate cookie

Ideation

A good design always begin with a lot of sketching, brainstorming, discussions and some more sketching. Eventually we all agreed to work out a modular box concept wherein every sweet has it own module. The eye-catcher of the design is the chiselled corner.

Prototype

We got our pencils, scissors and paper and we started making prototypes of the design. After several hours we managed to get the lay-out of the packaging. The complete box, including the chiselled corner, the lid and the insert, can be folded out of one single sheet of paper.

A pop-up mechanism is implemented in the design, the contents of the box will be lifted up when the lid is opened. When the users open the package, the sweets are immediately presented to them.

Name and logo

We came up with Sweets of the World for the name of the product. A self-explanatory name is chosen to make clear to consumers what the product is all about.

We opted for a handwritten logo. It has its own identity and a playful and perhaps even a bit of artisanal/authentic look.

Here you can see the different handwritten versions of the logo. This was a search for a balance between legibility (which is sometimes difficult with handwritten logos) and a playful appearance.

Concepts

For the branding and print of the packaging we have developed various concepts as well. We played with color, typography, composition, photos and illustrations.

Ultimately, the strengths from 2 different concepts were combined into 1 final concept.

We have combined the concept with "quirky" typography with the concept on which a picture of the content can be seen. The typography comes back in the final concept and the content is depicted with an illustration that matches the typography. A photo of the content can also be seen on the side of the packaging.

Visualisation

All the parts are made ready and now everything has to come together. The complete idea must be visualised in order to present it in the end. I always find this part of the process is one of the most fun, because now the idea really comes to life.

We did this by making 3D models of our design and rendering them in interesting compositions. Then the graphics and details are edited in Photoshop. And then it is finally time to present the final concept!

Sweets of the World

Sweets from all over the world packed in an attractive box. The packaging box contains a lot of graphic details. The top of the lid is covered with lettering and accompanied by an illustration of the containing sweet. Glossed silhouettes of the countries of origin are depicted on the edged corners.

By specifically displaying the name of the sweet in their own language, it remains a surprise to most people what kind of candy it is, plus they learn what the sweet is really called.

Branding

For the branding, we have chosen for a combination of typography and illustration in bright colors on a dark background. Dark grey is used as the primary color for the box to give it a luxurious appearance. Bright colors are added to make the product more fun and joyful. Combining the two expressions leads to them reinforcing each other. Each product has it own color palette based on their country of origin.

Tasting culture

The story behind Sweet of the World is literally about tasting different cultures. Letting people exploring culture through food. That is why we thought it would be nice to give the user some more information about the countries where the sweets come from.

When opening the lid, the user can read some funny and light-hearted facts about the sweet and the land on the inside of the lid. For example: Did you know that an average Dutch person eats 20 stroopwafels per year. You can also see on the inside of the box, how to say "enjoy your food in each country. Buon appetito!

Wrapping

In the stores the consumer will be able to wrap 3 or 5 modules together to assemble a personalised gift package. When several modular boxes are stacked on top of each other, the chiseled corners give a nice effect of continuity to the combined shape of the package.

Outcome

Rajea and Karisa passed their course with an excellent grade and we had a great weekend. We decided to post it on Behance and received lots of positive feedback. We got higlighted on Behance, Dieline, Packaging of the World, Publish and many more. All in all, a fun playground project that we can look back on with great pride and pleasure.