Chili & Cheer Branding and Packaging
Chili & Cheer is a China-based food company focusing on spicy snacks and quick meals.
Their aesthetic goal is a graceful, elegant, Avant-Garde, Pop, and Absurdist style.
The target audience groups vary based on the category, but mostly focuses on
young adults and women in China and other Asian countries.
The client wants to make spicy foods that spark feelings of joy and cheer in the heart. They also wanted interesting and "collectable" designs on the packaging that could encourage the audience to buy the food item simply for the design of it.
As the lead designer I worked with William Huang and Yaya Thirada to create 5 variations for 10 categories of different food products.
LOGO
We wanted the logo to feel young but graceful, with a soft but intriguing energy. The client shared with us that one of his motivations with his products is to insinuate the same feeling of comfort and pleasure he and his family felt from eating homemade spicy foods during their times of struggle in China under Mao. We wanted the logo to insinuate his strong
connection to his mother's cooking.
Personally, this is the version of the design that I would have selected.
COLORS
The client wanted colors that were fashionable, eye-catching, and unisex (but leaning on the feminine side).
Green: 55ef52
Blue: 1fc6fd
Purple: d98cfd
Pink: fe5186
Yellow: fece00
PACKAGING
Spicy Sauce:
Target Audience: General
As the audience for this one is more general, our client wanted to keep its design more universal and general.
2 different types of spicy sauces are distinguished by the stroke and fill of the gold circle around the logo.
The left one indicates a more liquid based sauce. The right one indicates a more solid based sauce.
Side Meal:
Target Audience: General, Women/Family
Another general flavor sauce that can be added to rice and meals.
Vegetable Snack:
Target Audience: Young Adults
The design for this category layers oil painted faces onto the faces of the models.
Meat Snack:
Target Audience: Young Adults
The animals specifies the type of dried meat that the snack is made of.
Seafood Snack:
Target Audience: Young Adults
The design for this category layers modern sculptures of marine life in the background and in the foreground,
a model figure layered with classical style sculptures.
Flavor Base:
Target Audience: General, Family, Women
This category is a flavor base powder that one can add to their broth or soup to add additional flavors. As this type of food product is vastly popular in China, the design needs to be very eye-catching. The style juxtaposes a Pop art style with classical, etched and painted styles.
Main Meal:
Target Audience: General, Workers, Young Adults
This food product is a microwaveable, instant meal for people who don't have a lot of time to cook but are still interested in flavorful and fulfilling meals.
Puffed Chips:
Target Audience: Teens, Young Adults
This product is a variety of chips made from different starches. The client emphasized that this category must be desirable by a younger audience that would be less interested in "elegance" and more in something cool.
