Pentagram works on ‘Better’ own-brand ranges for Budgens

Pentagram has designed two own-brand packaging ranges for Budgens which are set to change the face of hundreds of products.

Under the working titles Better and Best, the lines will follow the new Good Value range, launched in January.

Pentagram was appointed directly last summer by Musgrave Retail Partners GB, which owns the brand, initially bringing a packaging range of 50 Good Value products to market. It has, though, now emerged that Pentagram was briefed to look at a cohesive three-tier strategy across the whole own-brand range.

According to Pentagram partner Harry Pearce, the new ranges are essentially for Budgens, but will be in some Londis stores, and will roll out before the end of the year.

The decision to rebrand all products is driven partly by the economic climate and a belief by Budgens that consumers want to trade down on price but not on quality. Jemima Bird, marketing director of Musgrave Retail Partners GB, says, ‘The design needs to reflect this integrity.’ Bird and Pearce collaborated before when Bird worked for The Co-operative, which was rebranded by Pentagram.

The Good Value range has been designed with large black type in an American Typewriter font, on a white background coupled with a short description. John Simmons has provided copywriting across the range, and simple product photography by Diana Miller is displayed on each packet.

Pearce says he asked Miller to simulate ‘daylight lighting’. He adds, ‘Light suffuses the image and you know nothing is being hidden or tarted up.’

The American Typewriter font takes its cue from the Budgens logo, which is in the same typeface and which also provides the filigree motif for the Good Value logo.

Budgens gets better:

• A Good Value own-brand packaging range designed by Pentagram was launched in Budgens and Londis in January
• Two new ranges, with working titles Better and Best, are expected before the end of the year
• Hundreds of packets will be changed in the overhaul