Pots of Paints Competitors - little green

It is important to look at there competitors to understand what is out there in the market, seeing how they deal with packaging and other pieces of design. Looking at how pots of paints compare to find a style that will stand out in the current marked, but also keeping the ideals of the client.

I have already looked at the company 'little Green' during a mini brief, but I came across a interesting video of the new advert for the company. 

This uses a interesting way to highlight the range of colour of the company, but I think for the pot of paints company something in this style would not work as there designs it should be more organic and relate to history, have a more classic nature to it. 

I started to look videos that promote, recycling and reusing the video below I reminded me of the little green advert due to the shots of hands, this I think has a more natural feel to it as it show actual hands and not mannequin hand.

I found that this video had some interesting facts in it, as well as highlight the need for us to work together and do our bit, is it possible to represent this in a design for pots of paint, creating a team spirt for the product? 

Notes from Client meeting

Project Manager - Peter Dowley

Pots Of Paint - what they believe is important about there product

- Historic

- Health

- sympathetic

- Colour  

Current tins

metal - oil based paint

plastic - water based paint

Transport 

Two tins and often placed in a bigger tin, side by side with corn starch pellets put around them as they expand, securing and absorbing any paint that may pill in transit. - but the think it is to much packaging, they used to put a leaflet inside the packaging asking people not to throw away the pots but reuse, giving some examples of what they could do with it.  

Worked with companies in Germany and Sweden.

pots of paint send there pots to sweden, who then film then, sending them back, where they are put in a shacking machine with added pigment to make the colour

Labels

Currently there is 3 labels on there products, a large one on the front with the company name and logo on it. and two smaller ones to the right and one above the other, with the colour and batch number.

Things to think about 

- Health and safety for carrying products 

- Easy to pick up

- How easy it is to package 

- labe on outer packaging  

- The company is willing to offer incentives for for customers to send back packaging - but there is never really any paint waste 

- The logo size is changeable   

Things which are not possible/customer does not won't

- Paint in powder form

- Stay away from old packaging (100% natural ingredients and pot of "love" ect labels)

- Clear pots - as the paint separates so does not look attractive 

- No colour windows needed

Thinks  the client would like to keel the same

- Logo

- Branding Colour

- Same font 'Century'

Client View

Eco packaging is just as important as sending the message to the customer  

Client current design likes

- Innocent Smothies

- on a mission : Rude Health foods

- Eco yet commercial : Ecotricity Branding  

   

Questions for the initial client meeting

What criteria is most important for the product to have, in the form of design?

Are there any styles of artist or designers that your are particularly interested in and think could connect to you company image?

Are there any elements of the current design, that needs to me kept?

What was before paint pots

I can across a interesting article 

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2049154/Ancient-art-materials-discovered-South-African-cave.html

Daily Mail

14 October 2011

The 100,000-year-old paint pot: Man's oldest art studio found in cave

"Paint pots used by humans more than 100,000 years ago have been discovered in South Africa.

Archaeologists excavating the Blombos Cave have stumbled upon a hoard of art materials which include everything an ancient artist might have required to be creative.

Red and yellow pigments, shell containers and grinding cobbles and bone spatulas - to mix up a paste - were all present in the discovery that, researchers say, is proof that our early ancestors' were more modern than once thought."

"We believe the manufacturing process involved the rubbing of pieces of ochre on quartzite slabs to produce a fine red powder.

'Ochre chips were crushed with quartz, quartzite and silcrete hammerstones/grinders and combined with heated, crushed mammal-bone, charcoal, stone chips and a liquid, which was then introduced to the abalone shells and gently stirred."

Thoughts 

This showed that natural materials used to be uses, and connects to some of 'pots of paint' company aims.   

Will the key to the future be found in the past?

How is there paint eco-friendly

I was interested how there paint was made, what makes it different and more eco friendly, I wanted to look into it as I wanted to truly understand the product which I am designing for. 

One there website I found the following information on there website which explained.

The Environment

Synthetic paint making is changing because the European Union has legislated to end the use of the most toxic and environmentally damaging ingredients formally used in them.  Natural paints are essentially carbon neutral as they use plant oils not crude oil derivatives. Plants absorb CO2, while drilling for oil is releasing CO2. Paint waste is a huge pollution problem when not disposed of responsibly.