Here at Elastic, brand is everything. It is your personality, what you stand for, and, in telling your own story, it distinguishes your unique qualities from your competitors. It is also much more than just your logo: it is the colours you use, the fonts and style of typography that you use and the imagery you select to help tell this story. It is also any materials that you use and how you package up your products and even includes the look and feel that you want to project.
I’ve selected 3 examples of local packaging that are all unique and help convey their brands perfectly. In 2019, it is equally important when discussing the subject of packaging to examine the environmental impact. For this piece we contacted Changeworks for their own independent, highly-qualified advice on how of each of these materials adhere to best practice guidelines.
Cafe Noir
Around the corner from us is Cafe Noir that has taken over the old Starbucks corner position at Palmerston Place. Despite being another cafe, it has most certainly carved out a unique position for itself. Everything is far less rushed, much more refined and they have managed to maintain a very high level of quality since they opened. Hats off to them for their continued success. One area of brand detail is the coffee cups they’ve chosen: smaller than the usual cup and with a sophisticated texture, these cups reflect their overall delivery of quality over quantity. It’s become one of Elastic’s favourite lunchtime spots.
Changeworks says…
Coffee cups: there’s been a lot of coverage in the press. We accept them as the bulk of the coffee cup is cardboard, the cardboard is removed for recycling in the pulping process and the wax/plastic insert floats to the top to be removed completely. The lids unfortunately can’t be recycled and should go in the general waste. Compostable packaging isn’t the answer as there is a grey area surrounding the definition of compostable. We would advocate using a reusable cup, such as a keep cup or something similar.
Pizza Geeks
Some of us being geeks ourselves this restaurant appealed right away. Yes, there are plenty of pizza places but not like this one. We love the integration of the pan with the glasses (and the stormtrooper version from their website!). The look is informal and fun, just like the atmosphere in this Dalry den. The simplicity of the line drawing reflects the clarity of their offering: simple, no fuss and in the company of some very fine vintage geeky toys, objects and images. Love it.
Changeworks says…
Pizza Boxes: these are fine to go in the cardboard recycling… as long as there’s no residual food left on the box.
Innis & Gunn
Recently having celebrated 15 years in business, these guys continue to go from strength to strength. Their glass bottles really are the most beautiful in Edinburgh and possibly the world. A key ingredient in branding, where possible, is to create desire: to not just be aware of a company and its products but to actually want them. Innis & Gunn capitalised on this desire to perfection in their recent campaign by identifying their glasses as the most stolen from local pubs. Brilliant!
Changeworks says…
Glass bottles: these are fine for recycling, labels don’t need to be removed, we do ask that the bottles are empty, though! (But that’s more to reduce the smell while on your site before they being collected.
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