Our Chinese consumers nowadays aren’t just eating healthier. They’re eating smarter. They demand healthy, functional, convenient food choices that fit into their busy lives and sense of Chinese individualism. While they look to the rest of the world for some things, the functional benefits of Chinese herbalism are a familiar comfort. In partnership with the respected Guangzhou Pharma (Pan Gao Shou), we developed Quaker Oat Congee. Breakfast bars with added herbal medicine benefits. Our challenge from a packaging perspective – how do you design 1000 years of Chinese tradition into a grab-and-go breakfast bar for modern consumers?
Our design solution was to embrace history and tradition with an eye to contemporary design theory. We looked to authentic herbal medicine stores to develop a visual language seeped in the rich symbolism of traditional healers. Unlike the West, our medicine is rooted in the medicinal properties of the natural world. The delicious, beautiful bounty of the natural world. So, we developed modern, reductive illustrations of our ingredients layered with textures and symbols from traditional Chinese medicine. The result is a package that says wellness. It says tradition. And it says it all in a visual language that is quintessentially Chinese.
