Case Study: Backcountry Wok
Launching in 2019 with a successful Kickstarter campaign, Backcountry Wok was created to fill a gap in the dehydrated market – providing Asian inspired meals that are dietician approved, 100% vegan, and come in compostable bags.
In order to blend in with the “backcountry” community and style, the original packaging designs, created by owner Mel, featured landscape and nature photos on brown kraft bags. She was, however, struggling with consistency in brand applications and cohesiveness and wanted a strong brand that would help to cement the company within their niche.
Brand Design
Package Design
The problem:
Difficult to read packaging with small, cluttered text
No defined brand, leading to inconsistent fonts and colours across marketing materials
Packaging needs to stand out both in nature and against competitors (i.e be bold in marketing photos and also on shelves next to other products)
The strategy:
Use ingredient-inspired colours that contrast with natural colours in order to create a striking design that will help the packaging stand out on shelves and against natural backdrops
Use a natural, but not expected, colour for the core brand palette in order for the brand to remain familiar and professional to consumers + complimentary to the ocean and mountain colours often used in marketing photos
Create an illustration of the outdoors to use in place of the photos, bringing natural, organic elements to the packaging that blend into the background and allow the text to take visual priority
Find font families that will be adaptable, legible and practical for the brand
The results:
Create a mini-brand identity that would give owner Mel a consistent set of fonts, colours and logos to use
Choose colours and a style that will feel at home on shelves for backcountry enthusiasts, but will still stand out from competitors products
Reorganize content on the packaging design to ensure legibility
UPDATE: Backcountry Wok was renamed to Off The Path Provisions in 2021.
