Good design is based on 'detective work'

Amelia Noble and Frith Kerr talked about their experience of designing food packaging for Liberty. The event was held at St Bride Library, the very place where they seek inspiration for their designs.

In 2003, the pair was commissioned to design from scratch the packaging for department store Liberty’s first food range.

The resulting designs centred on an old escutcheon discovered on a silk scarf in the retailer’s textile library.

“The key thing for us was to design packaging that reflected what Liberty was about and encompassed a lot of playfulness,” said Kerr.

They injected a sense of fun into the designs by including poetic statements about the packaged product alongside the more traditional printed shields.

Morag Myerscough, former packaging art director for china manufacturer Wedgwood, agreed that brand identity was an important part of packaging design.

In her lecture, Myerscough detailed her quest to “bring Wedgwood back from looking like Next”, and re-establish the brand through packaging in the company’s trademark blue and white colours.