I was asked to develop a brand identity and packaging for the Glassons Christmas gift range. Inspired by the intricate gold detailing and neutral palette of the range itself, I have created a sophisticated yet fun design for the brand & packaging.

This year our range was very simplistic and high quality so I have mirrored that with the design. The final packaging has a limited palette consisting of craft paper in brown or cream with gold speckle foiling, loose illustrations and prominent, clean type.

We created a gold speckle element using masks in Adobe Illustrator. I expanded on this by illustrating details of the product. The name of the product needed to be the hierarchy, as you can rarely see the gift inside. I have chosen a strong, sharp typeface to stand out and catch our customers attention. I predominately jumped between Adobe Illustrator and Adobe Indesign for clean lines and structured typographic details.

Our customers loved this range, and this was reflected through elevated sales. We received really positive feedback from the stores explaining that customers were happy to spend slightly more as the packaging and product is great quality. With the festive design, most customers didn’t opt for gift wrapping, and explained it was “ready to put under the Christmas tree”.

Lauren Earl

Lauren Earl is a New Zealand designer specialising in typography, graphics and illustration. She holds a Bachelor of Design, majoring in visual communication design, with First Class Honours from Massey University in Wellington.

She is a highly motivated designer with freelance and commercial experience in New Zealand and around the world. After graduating from university in 2012 she set up her own practice, trading as 949 Design. At the age of 23, Lauren successfully published her own book, Flatter’s Survival Guide (formerly known as Flatmate’s Handbook).

Today she works as the Senior Graphics Manager for a large-scale New Zealand high-street fashion brand, conceiving and designing a wide variety of promotional materials, art directing campaigns and continuing to run her own design business as well.

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