Works About

Design Project: Herbs (*work in progress)

Herbs are everyday, practical ingredients mainly used for culinary and healthcare purposes, and increasingly incorporated into product ingredients such as candles, skincare serums, home remedies and more. Despite their usage to elevate dishes, drinks, scents and products, they’re frequently overlooked in the grocery markets. Sometimes packaged, but always no frills. It’s a missed opportunity to promote an essential market that has always been there.

This is a design-focused project I created with the concept of turning the tide on fresh herbs and creating a new visual identity that reflects the individuality of herbs .

I wanted to make shopping for herbs alluring, aesthetic, fun and easy to promote and/or gift, while at the same time still keeping the materials environmentally-friendly. It’s the idea of selling flavour and health and wellness, which is a USD $135.72 million market. People unfamiliar with cooking and shopping for food should be able to identify each herb easily, without trouble looking at a sea of green or squinting at small text on plain white labels. With this in mind, the main target audience are leisure home cooks, health gurus, food/fitness influencers, and tech-savvy customers that shop from supermarkets, specialty food stores, and online.

Key research notes
With a projection to reach USD $5783.77 million by 2031, up from its 2021 value of USD $3235.93 million, the global market for fresh herbs is huge. It’s anticipated to be fuelled by rising popularity of international cuisines and grow in the upcoming years until 2025 as a result of consumers’ increasing desire for packaged herbs- boosted by the growth of retail and consumers’ growing choice to purchase at hypermarkets, supermarkets and online merchants.

More hybrid varieties of herbs (ex. basil, parsley, more) are being grown for more consistency, faster growth rate, lessor losses, better yield, greater shelf life, all while still maintaining great flavour. As demand rises and supply improves, it’s a missed opportunity for health and wellness and culinary purposes.

After brainstorming and testing several different directions, I finalized the art concept and design to focus on each herb’s characteristics and emphasize the visual differences between them. The design is modern, clean and artistic, focusing on a single stem and creating depth with the interaction of the font to create a unique identity. It elevates the branding while also maintaining legibility.

mock-up of artwork in real-life setting

For the final production, the goal is to balance minimal use of material with safekeeping the herbs until consumer use. The design would be printed on compostable cane fibre label stock and attached to clear, hinged containers made of NatureWorks® Biopolymer, a 100% corn-based resin that’s fully compostable in commercial facilities on 45-60 days.

The compostable plastic can be snapped closed for continued storage in the refrigerator and the sticker label would feature a tear line over the opening to ensure product consistency and safekeeping.

Label design and final renderings to come soon.