Blackbird “Merlo” & Free-Range Chicken Feed: Packaging 10 Designs

If you love birds, this week’s Packaging 10 entries are for you and any feathered friends you may have!

“Uniti – United” (above) was designed by Mattia Conconi from Gottschalk+Ash International. Founded by Fritz Gottschalk, this design firm has played a leading role in taking Swiss design, with its characteristics of honesty, sustainability, masterful craftsmanship, and deep visual literacy, out to the wider world. Over the past five decades, Gottschalk+Ash has produced successful solutions that are surprisingly simple, are always compelling mentally and visually, and are rendered at a human scale.

Swiss canton Ticino approached Gottschalk+Ash to design the label for their bottle of Uniti wine, which they made specially to help wine producers that suffered from the commercial impact of COVID-19. Along with Gottschalk+Ash, this project was a collaboration of different umbrella organizations: Ticinowine (promoting the local wine), GastroTicino (restaurants), Ticino Turismo (tourism), HotellerieSuisse Ticino (hotels), Associazione Campeggi Ticinesi (camping sites), Unione Contadini Ticinesi (farmers) and Centro di Competenze Agroalimentari (farming and nutrition). Twelve wine producers provided wines united under one label, which led to the name “Uniti” (which means “united”). A play on words gives the label its little bird image; the blackbird’s Italian name is “merlo”, and thus, the wine is a merlot! As wine is sold in restaurants and bars in Ticino at a very affordable price, the label is designed like a poster for all to enjoy.

Chickens are some of the most beautiful, weird, wonderful, and wildly entertaining creatures. Thanks to the delicious eggs they produce, it’s no surprise some people like to keep their own flock, even in urban and suburban areas. Unfortunately, there’s not a wide variety of flock feed available in cities, so pet food company Purina created Hen Up, a totally organic, non-GMO, super simple chicken feed for urban retail, and reached out to Travis Olsen of the in-house design agency of Land O’Lakes for packaging design. Land O’Lakes is a member-owned agricultural co-operative that produces butter, spreads, cheese, animal feeds, seeds, and crop protection products. They also offer operating loans and financing to farmers and livestock producers.

Olsen went with a simple yet graphic feel with “Hen Up – Brand and Packaging” (above), using adorable chicken motifs to capture the cuteness of real chickens. Each package is color-coded depending on the type of feed, with blue for scratch grains, green for start growth crumbles, red for layer pellets, and purple for layer mash; whatever you want to feed your girls, it’s been developed to give your chickens a healthy, balanced diet. And given how urban flock owners are digital- and social-first, the packaging is designed to thrive on e-comm screens. Given that all four products are currently selling on Chewy and Amazon while exceeding initial sales projections, the design is definitely working!

To find out more, check out our Packaging 10 competition, and don’t forget to submit your own designs!