You can choose any single serving meal of your choice, but it must include at least three food items to constitute a ‘meal’. It doesn’t necessarily need to be healthy, however neither should it be considered fast food. Consider its nutritional value and obviously – its appeal – It shouldn’t look out of place on the table of a restaurant. It can be a meal that can be eaten cold, or requires some basic preparation, and is most likely part of a wider brand ‘range’ on offer. I would recommend you walk around some grocery stores and look at what they have to offer as the initial part of your research (yes, this involves stepping away from Google!). This doesn’t necessarily mean you are looking for an existing single serve meal already out there – You are creating a new one here, ultimately a range.
Once you have decided on a meal (and initially you should have several options to choose from), your challenge is to create visually appealing and accurate (name, description, ingredients, logo’s etc.) surface graphics and in particular to create packaging that is in keeping with the brand, innovative, easy to carry, easy to stack on a shelf or hang in multiples. Your packaging must contain EVERYTHING required to prepare and eat that specific meal.
And perhaps most important of all – while visually appealing on the shelves alongside the competition – it should be constructed, in a way, using materials and resources, that will have little or no impact on the environment. Research recyclable, biodegradable materials (including inks, glues etc.) and look at innovative existing packaging such as the examples below. Don’t be afraid to look ‘outside the box’ (haha, get it?) by researching non-related packaging directions, such as origami.
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