New designs for Morrisons’ Premium range

Coley Porter Bell has created new designs for supermarket Morrisons’ premium range, which replaces the former Morrisons’ The Best range.

Morrisons' jam range
Morrisons’ jam range

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, followed by the M Savers Value range in January this year.

The premium range of more than 200 products use ‘a classic crafted feel ­but with a modern twist’, according to Coley Porter Bell.

Morrisons' cheesecake packaging
Morrisons’ cheesecake packaging

‘The objective is the same as with all the Morrisons’ ranges we have rebranded’, says Stephen Bell, creative director of Coley Porter Bell.

‘These products are the highest expression of Morrisons’ food values and we wanted to communicate just how much care goes into the making of these products. By designing outside the supermarket category conventions we wanted consumers to have a fresh take on Morrisons’ premium products.’

The packaging designs uses a window formed of a roundel in the shape of the Morrisons’ marque, which holds the product name and description beneath a gold stamp holding the Morrisons M logo.

Bell says,  ‘We wanted to make a range that felt very premium and distinctive from the competition. A lot of care and attention went into the details with the look and feel – it had to ooze quality but in a Morrisons way.’

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Comments
  • Peter Crolla November 30, -0001 at 12:00 am

    Many customers have been disillusioned about Morrisons going upmarket. Will this work? Only time will tell.

  • Peter Crolla November 30, -0001 at 12:00 am

    Instead of spending so much money on re-branding items and creating fancy labels, Morrisons is better off focusing on good customer service. This is what the customers demand, and not receiving.

  • Neil November 30, -0001 at 12:00 am

    Ahhhhhhhhhhhh! I love the work Coley Porter Bell created for Morrisons’ entry range. Quirky and at times awkward but in a nice way. But this stuff? If I reach for a ‘best of packaging design 1987’ book I’ll find the same kind of work. What the hell? It’s got a bit of everything in here – Ovals, coloured bands and insignificant food cutouts. I’d go for the budget range any day. This is sub-standard design from a major branding agency.

  • Colin Mechan November 30, -0001 at 12:00 am

    I agree with Anonymous. Morrisons have gone forward leaps and bounds in the last twelve months, with their value range, their core range and with NU-ME, but on this evidence really haven’t got it together for their premium range. CPB are so good that I can only imagine that Morrisons either 1) ran out of money or 2) ran out of time.
    And another thing; when are we, the Design Industry as a whole, going to start saying things in our Press Release quotes that do more than state the obvious? Over and again the “quotes” from Creative Directors are just space fillers; did Steven Bell really say this or was it written by someone in pyar??

  • Craig Barnes November 30, -0001 at 12:00 am

    I was on the design team as part of this project at Coley Porter Bell and we are very proud of the work. Designing for retail is an area which has a visual language of its own based, in part, on what consumers demand. Sometimes you can challenge that, (M Savers) sometimes you don’t need to in order to hit the mark. What Morrisons’ previous design lacked was a feeling of quality and ownability. Our brief was to create something which looked distinctive (easy to pick out from the busy shelf fixtures), premium (in a way that is relevant to a supermarket known for good value products) and of good quality (to reflect the standard of the products). On top of that consumers like to see the ingredients or the actual product itself to feel assured before parting with their hard earned cash. In all of those areas I feel we have succeeded, and as well as that, have created a premium range which does not feel like anything the competition is doing. Good branding is not always about reinventing the wheel. Anyone who has experience in the retail sector in particular will reaffirm this! I hope the range does well for Morrisons. When it has finished rolling out in store it will look great, in context to all the other work we have done for the brand – and for that reason alone it is a success already. Thanks for all the comments.

  • Robert Watson November 30, -0001 at 12:00 am

    Calm down Craig! A sterling defence of your work, and thanks for the lesson in designing for retail…

    But I have to agree with the comments above. It looks dated and a study in conventional design techniques of ovals, ingredient cameos and old fashioned typography. It breaks no new ground – whereas the same agency’s work for M Savers does.

    I would also add that this range does feel like a very watered down version of the Harrods packaging designed by Honey Creative 5 years ago.

  • Stephen November 30, -0001 at 12:00 am

    Looks like every other “premium” food package. yawn.

  • Frances November 30, -0001 at 12:00 am

    Craig’s comments are absolutely spot on. It’s not always about revolution, this is a solid bit of design work. Why does a box for a supermarket cheesecake have to ‘break new ground’? Maybe next time CPB can do a Tron style cheesecake pack, with glow in the dark ink, polygon shapes and scratch and sniff.

  • Anthony Nolan November 30, -0001 at 12:00 am

    Yawn… mediocre at best! Anyone else from the agency want to come and defend this?

  • Punit Pattni November 30, -0001 at 12:00 am

    Would you have gone down this design route if this was a major brand? Basically it seems what the designer’s are saying is that they felt like they didn’t need to try hard enough, and just settled for a design full of clichés because its just a supermarket brand!
    Saying that this is what consumers and the client wants is easy… You could have tried a little bit harder CPB!

  • Craig Barnes November 30, -0001 at 12:00 am

    Re; Anonymous. Morrisons is a major brand. It is also a brand that has to appeal to a very broad audience, most of whom are not designers or design savvy. We designed something which is exactly right tone for the Morrisons market. We do not design brands for designers! A cliche to a designer is something fresh and new to a supermarket shopper and a good branding agency knows that targeting those consumers is the best way to build a brand and increase profit for the client – the ultimate end goal! Thankfully, due to our very hard work, we also achieved a design which looks good too, so hopefully it will become a success for Morrisons and for Coley Porter Bell. Amusing to see how all the controversial posts are anonymous!

  • andy November 30, -0001 at 12:00 am

    I think CPB should be designing for 2013 not 1980. Dull as dish water!

  • Jake November 30, -0001 at 12:00 am

    This looks dreadful!!! 15 years out of date.

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