Coley Porter Bell and Morrisons unveil M Savers value range

Wed, 4 Jan 2012 | By Emily Gosling

Coley Porter Bell has created new packaging designs for supermarket Morrisons’ Value range, which has been renamed M Savers.

Jam

This forms part of the consultancy’s rebrand of the entire Morrison’s own brand range. As reported by Design Week in April last year, Morrisons tasked the consultancy with re-evaluating the brand strategy for its own-brand products.

The Morrisons M Kitchen ready meals was the first range to launch, and began rolling out in October last year. Other ranges will continue to roll out over the next 18 months.

Nappies

The Value range, which includes about 350 products,has been renamed M Savers to ‘reflect its consumer benefit’, according to Coley Porter Bell.

Salad

Stephen Bell, creative director of Coley Porter Bell, says,‘A lot of value ranges have one-size-fits-all, cookie-cutter designs. We really like the idea of giving it some heart and some personality, but balancing that with looking really cared for but not too premium.’

The packaging sees the core logo accompanied by ‘hand-crafted product illustrations of product silhouettes and shapes in a naivist style’, in ‘foody’ colours against a white background.

Laundry powder

Bell says, ‘The naive style is really charming and simple - it’s optimistic but the style is strong, so although every illustration is different the white background holds it together.’

Coley Porter Bell senior designer Craig Barnes created a bespoke typeface for the product descriptions shown within the illustrations, which were all drawn in-house at the consultancy.

Tuna

Bell says, ‘These designs, which look handcrafted and quirky, contribute to the feeling that even Morrisons’ most humble products have been cared for by people. We’d like people to raise a little smile when they see these designs.’

Carol Turner, head of design for Morrisons, adds, ‘These designs are engaging and completely unique.’

Readers' comments (12)

Anonymous | Wed, 4 Jan 2012 10:10 pm
The design looks great and a lot better than the current value range,but ‘These designs are engaging and completely unique.’ Waitrose comes to mind !
Unsuitable or offensive? Report this comment
brendan martin | Thu, 5 Jan 2012 12:00 pm
how refreshing! bright, clear, fun and eye-catching. It's great that someone has woken up to the fact that value ranges don't have to be an embarrassing purchase.
Unsuitable or offensive? Report this comment
Colin Mechan | Thu, 5 Jan 2012 3:40 pm
well done carol! another winner!
Unsuitable or offensive? Report this comment
Designer Tim | Fri, 6 Jan 2012 10:49 am
Really? I think it looks too cheap, the illustrations are terrible. Craig Barnes needs to go back to type school.

I think Coley Porter Bell should have spent a bit more time on this!
Unsuitable or offensive? Report this comment
Robert | Fri, 6 Jan 2012 2:57 pm
Why is there a dog on the nappies package?
Unsuitable or offensive? Report this comment
Stephen Bell | Fri, 6 Jan 2012 5:03 pm
Thank you for your comments Designer Tim, we value and appreciate all viewpoints as it helps to make us better at what we do.

And as for Craig....well I'm sending him to typography school in Switzerland ASAP.
Unsuitable or offensive? Report this comment
Anonymous | Fri, 6 Jan 2012 10:59 pm
Very good. Cheap and Cheerful, not cheap and nasty (that old yellow, yeuch). BTW that's a stylised outline of a Fisher Price toy doggie on the nappy packet. Clearly designers don't have to walk in the slippers of the consumers.....
Unsuitable or offensive? Report this comment
adrienne martin | Sun, 8 Jan 2012 6:56 pm
Well the proof is in the pudding. I purchased some baby wipes today that I never would have bought, with the old designed packaging. I agree its as good as waitrose essentials.
Unsuitable or offensive? Report this comment
Edward Crowley | Mon, 9 Jan 2012 9:02 pm
I think it strikes a good balance between being playful yet still maintaining a value for money image.Big fan.
Unsuitable or offensive? Report this comment
matthewgrocott.co.uk | Fri, 13 Jan 2012 11:10 am
It reminds me of some of the packaging Safeway used to have, which I always thought was better than Morrisons. Really like it
Unsuitable or offensive? Report this comment