After establishing Kit Kat Chocolatory and Allen's Lollysmiths for Nestlé Australia with the agency Ensemble, I've worked continually for Nestlé Confectionery for many years. The packaging briefs for their different brands have been varied, but mainly focusing on the growth areas of seasonal and gifting products and new product innovation, rather than everyday supermarket products.
The key creative challenge has still always been how to elevate each product regardless of the degree of innovation. Dialling up premium qualities being crucial to justify a higher price, but whilst retaining existing brand equity and falling within global guidelines. I've been lucky enough to work on many, many projects for Nestlé, but the examples shown below here hope to prove the expertise that I brought to the project - creative concept, packaging and broader comms design (which would often involve a degree of illustration) but always with the disciplines of understanding the retail environment and customer preferences.
From a production perspective, a lot of the packaging artwork has involved bespoke and innovative dyelines or even special printing approaches. My contribution has gone further than just concept & design by supplying complete finished art to the printers. Over two decades of print and art work experience working closely with agency and supplier producers has been invaluable. The years of experience has also helped me to understand my clients' needs for efficiency with budgets, the need to multi-task and cover many disciplines. But most importantly to listen to clients needs and try to respond to feedback quickly whilst still holding true to the focus of producing well-crafted creative work.
Here are more examples of packaging created for the Kit Kat Chocolatory boutiques and online store, once they had become more established. The designs push beyond what's expected for the Kit Kat brand, into a playful and more unexpected territory. But always with a need to be super-responsive and efficient with time and money. The products pushing flavours cues with a far more conceptual approach - extending beyond the usual rules of engagement in a supermarket environment.
These Kit Kat Special Editions were sold exclusively in the Chocolatory boutiques and online store, and featured amazing new flavours conceived and created locally. Highly sought-after products made in Japan (and other countries) were also sold in stores, but these were repackaged under the Chocolatory brand and to fall in line with the whole range of Special Editions on offer.
For Christmas 2020 and 2021, an overarching idea was developed for Kit Kat Chocolatory based on a feast of Christmas flavours. We really didn't want to fall into the trap of the usual Christmas cues and motifs which is very much the norm with confectionary gifting at this time of year. Whilst it can be appropriate, in this case it would fall well short of pushing premium cues and extending the reach of the master brand. We leant into a concept inspired by a summertime wonderland, with references to Australian flora in a bright and unique colour palette.
Some of my favourite examples of Allen's packaging - iconic Allen's lollies dipped in chocolate allowed for some fun character illustrations to convey the product inside the pack, which were available exclusively on the Lollysmith's online store.
With the launch of Kit Kat Chocolatory Sydney, a visual identity for general packaging and store livery was required. This pattern driven identity was created - the repetition in the linework was a common theme in the architecture of the stores (such as slatted woodwork and repeated packs on geometric shelving), but also gave us a platform to create packaging, signage and other collateral that still had energy and fun. There was also a global initiative at the time to reinforce a 'K' motif across Kit Kat packaging, so this proved to be an elegant solution to the brief.
Christmas tins for Kit Kat and Allen's that were sold exclusively in Big W. This shows how learnings from the Kit Kat Chocolatory and Allen's Lollysmiths experiences were then translated into a gifting product in a far more mainstream retail environment.
Packaging design and launch comms for Nestlé SNAK'IT - a new product innovation combining sweet and savoury treats, tempting consumers, at point of purchase in service stations and supermarkets. The concepts were created using existing product imagery which was carefully retouched together to literally burst with fun and flavour. The product launch was supported with OOH, and we also created a short animated version for online and social.
A quick but brilliant initiative from Nestlé to express overwhelming gratitude to healthcare workers during the COVID pandemic by giving them free product (stickered with a big "Thank You").
The Kit Kat Christmas Cabin Kit started as a special product in Chocolatory, and evolved into a bundled pack that was then sold in supermarket. Not surprising really, as who wouldn't want to make a cabin out of Kit Kat, chocolate and Allen's lollies? Although the product was very innovative in the category by incorporating a high level of interaction and engagement, the pack design brief asked for a simple solution with basic pillars - hero the product so people know what's inside, show obvious Christmas cues, and of course, ensure the brand is also front and centre. The Kit Kat Cabin Kit was a hit, and there has been several iterations of it every Christmas since.
This KitKat gift box brief had a high degree of difficulty, which is probably not obvious at first glance. The client asked for packaging that had celebratory and festive cues which was not tied to a specific season or day to ensure that product had the ability to sit for longer on shelves. The Kit Kat fingers also needed to be shown prominently, and the product itself was something that was no different to the product that was normally stocked on shelves.
An example of more mainstream packaging design for supermarkets shelves, launching the new "Cookie Bites" variation of Milkybar. Bespoke photography was commissioned, and then retouched and integrated into existing visual identity for Milkybar products.
A tactical in-supermarket product to celebrate Lunar New Year, which cleverly re-purposed an existing chocolate product.
