WMH fantasy branding for Boots Natural Collection

Williams Murray Hamm has redesigned and repackaged Boots the Chemists’ entire Natural Collection range. The new packs go on shelf on 24 September.

The range runs to 219 lines over six product categories. The thrust of the brief was to unify what had become an increasingly diverse product range, says WMH director Dick Murray.

The project is understood to be worth over £100 000 in fees. But WHM declines to comment and no one was available from Boots as Design Week went to press.

The range, which launched in the 1980s and has been one of Boots’ most successful lines, was widely viewed as the retailer’s ‘me too’ version of The Body Shop’s products, particularly given the similarity of the packaging, including the Body Shop’s distinctive black cap and label device.

WHM’s livery is based around a ‘fantasy world of living ingredients’ designed to ‘express life in nature’. Rather than dividing it up into categories, such as bath products and body lotions, WMH has grouped the range around ingredients. Illustrator Geoff Appleton has created complementary cartoon characters. For example, a sunflower is transformed into a dress and strawberry is a hot air balloon.

The range was last updated by Dew Gibbons in 1999 (DW 5 November 1999).

WHM, which has been on the Boots roster since May 2000, made credentials presentations against fellow roster groups last December. The new look was signed off in March.