M&S Ponder Time Final Piece

This is a YCN online competition brief which was to create the ‘perfect picnic’ for M&S. The target audience for my picnic set is females in particular (25-55 years old), but may attract more audiences. I decided to create a tea party set styled picnic which could be used anywhere. The tea set contains the cutlery and other novelty accessories for the picnic, whereas the food for the tea set would be bought from M&S separately. This is a permanent tea set which could be used over and over again, which also prevents excess waste.

The concept of my tea party revolves around the ‘Ponder Time’ title that I gave the picnic tea set. The tea set would be great for catch-ups or get together with friends, therefore I decided to include things to ‘ponder’ within the set. These things would be printed on the inside of the picnic packaging, on the napkins, teabags etc. and would give the audience more to talk about, or ‘ponder’ about.

Ponder Time Boards

Project complete! Here are my boards for the M&S ‘perfect picnic’ brief, I will post actual pictures when I get the chance…

Ponder Time Bunting and Cupcake Flags

Here is the design for a few extra bits that go in the ‘Ponder Time’ tea party picnic set; a bunting and some cupcake flags:

Ponder Time Food Packaging

Here are some designs for my food packaging. Originally I was going to go with a design on brown card, but when trying this out it looked too dull, therefore I went with these ideas. The food for the ‘Ponder Time’ tea party would be in a pick and mix format (very much like a meal deal), where you would get a certain amount of sandwiches, cupcakes and teabags for a set price, this would be made clear by the stickers stuck on the packaging. All food inside the boxes would come on a pull out tray, which would reveal ‘ponders’ when you pull it out of the packaging.

Tea Party ‘Ponder Time’ Concept and Poster Ideas

I decided as a theme for my tea party, I would go for the title ‘Ponder Time’. As I decided this tea-set would be aimed at the female audience getting together for a chat or catch-up, I thought it would be interesting to include things on the napkins, cutlery etc that they could ‘ponder’ over. These would be random things to ponder such as, for example ‘When in rain, why don’t rain shrink? Why is a boxing ring square?’ and other random questions like these. The tea party is made so that it could be set up anywhere (instead of a tea-pot the picnic set would include a large vacuum flask), so the idea is that they could ponder anything, anywhere and at any time; which is what I incorporated into the poster designs. The poster designs are quite simple but I think they work well as a typography piece and to leave the viewer wanting to find out more by not giving much away. I also think they work well as a follow on of posters which you would see throughout the store, possibly pointing you to the right direction in the store.

Tea Party Tea Cup Designs

Here are some designs for my tea cups to go in the tea party set. I think I prefer the designs filled with pattern rather than the logo designs, as these look a bit too corporate. I can see the patterned mugs working well in the tea set and could imagine them being sold separately as individual items also:

Tea Party Colour Scheme

I decided to ditch the brown cardboard packaging since it made all of my colours look too dull, and instead I have experimented with other colours and added patterns to them. Here is my chosen colour scheme which I will use throughout the tea party picnic set:

Picnic Packaging Mock Up

Tonight I built my picnic packaging design, which would hold all of the cutlery, cups, cupcake stand etc for the tea party set. The design is still in early stages but this gives you an idea of how I would like my packaging to work; the birdcage opens up to reveal the cupcake stand, which holds all of the cutlery etc. for the tea set. I have also chosen to go with a vacuum flask rather than a tea-pot as it is suppose to be the ‘perfect picnic’, therefore you could set up this tea party anywhere and everywhere!