Just opened at Gatwick, Jamie Oliver’s new restaurant and food concept combines Jamie’s Italian, bakery and a Union Jacks bar with a new food-to-go brand inspired by ‘the joy of flying.’ (The brands’ red and blue colours also neatly associate with what could be described as Britain’s national airline – British Airways!).

Now of course this is THE year for ‘Brit branding’, and so many products from food to clothing and home wares seem to be wrapped in the red, white and blue of the national flag but what do these colours really represent to us? Are they the most appropriate colours to communicate how special and different any product is and appeal to its target market?

The use of colour is an opportunity to communicate the values of the brand. Red and blue are not usually the first colours you would think of to associate with food. The ‘male’ properties of red, and conservative but trustworthy elements of blue in this particular palette combine to give a slightly more traditional look to the design.

I like that the brown packaging style and design seems to marry both the rustic look of Jamie’s Italian with the quirkiness of the Union Jacks restaurant themes. ‘Rustic’ and ‘quirky’ are qualities we more often associate with a palette of muted, off-beat, yellow based colours which being more ‘earthy’ tend to link more in our minds with food. A slightly more orange/red (uncoated) colour such as Pantone 173 would put a little more emphasis on ‘enjoyment’ and our feelings of feeling comfortable or satiated. Adding a little more warmth to the blue with the addition of a little yellow takes it to something like Pantone 7470 which will also sit a little more comfortably with this palette, moving it a little closer to the product proposition (food) and maintaining integrity of both the product and the brand. The colours still retain close enough links to traditional Brit branding and look great with the rustic look of the brown packaging material too.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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3 quick tips for using colour in branding

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In preparation for an upcoming lecture at KLC School of Design, I’ve been taking a trip down a colourful memory lane re-visiting popular colour palettes that reflected important social changes over the last few decades.

Trend forecasters help retailers develop product ranges that tap in to key seasonal colour and design trends influenced by social and cultural directions. But, tracing colour evolution from decade to decade and observing how certain colours were inspired and reflected the ‘mood’ or climate at the time, can also provide a fascinating insight on what might be next ?

Below (and in the next couple of posts to follow) I’ve selected a couple of key influences synonymous with that era referencing similar Pantone colours, starting with the 1960s.

1960s – the decade of the ‘Hippy’ and ‘Pop Art’ as typified by artist Andy Warhol. An expansion of (drug fuelled) visual awareness inspired creativity and manifested in ‘psychedelia’ with its eye-popping, intense colours. Helpfully, developments in petro-chemicals, plastics and synthetic dye technology meant that a wider range of colours could be processed using artificial pigments.

1960s - A period of Brit Cool as the quirky, eccentric modern style of  British designers; Mary Quant, Barbara Hulanicki, Ossie Clark and Zandra Rhodes were inspired by (among other things) Art Nouveau, Middle East, Art Deco and India, influencing a more muted, warm colour palette.

(My thanks for inspiration to Pantone ‘The 20th Century in Colour‘)

You might also like to read…Jubilee Inspired Colour