Sungiven Foods Canada
Position: Full-Time Graphic Designer
Sungiven Foods Canada is a grocery chain that aims to provide “Healthy Daily Meals” to it’s consumers. Originating from Xiamen in China, Sungiven focuses in creating private branded products so that it can oversee the entire manufacturing process - from harvesting the ingredients to how they are packaged and displayed in stores. In doing so, we can be confident that our products are top quality in terms of ingredients and the handling process. Our ultimate goal is to position ourselves as a friendly neighborhood grocery store that sells fresh and natural products with little or no added preservatives.
My main responsibilities as the Graphic Designer is to work alongside our Art Director and Marketing Director to evolve our brand while still retaining our essential art direction for both in-store visuals and product labels.
SUNGIVEN KITCHEN
In December 2020, we successfully opened our 4th location in Canada, at the Richmond Bridgeport area. This store was unique from the other 3 stores because of how it had our newly proposed “Sungiven Kitchen” included inside the grocery store. Like our stores in Xiamen, we wanted to provide healthy and nutritious meals for those who are working 9-5 and are too busy to cook meals at home.
My role in this project was to create all the in-store visual elements which included the 3 menu signages and 6 different “Hot Item” window decals.
As the lead designer for this project, I worked closely with the representative who manages all aspects of the Sungiven Kitchen - Owen Wang. The project had to start with researching and developing these recipes with external manufacturers.
Once these recipes are finalized, we coordinated with the external manufacturer to agree on how we want to market these items in our stores so that they represent each dish’s unique qualities.
Upon our final conversations, we ultimately decided for the following items to become the feature items for our kitchen::
Signature Baos
Nanyang Chicken Curry
Tom Yam Vermicelli
Sambal Chilli French Beans
Pork & Chicken Feet
Our team had initially proposed to have one menu that would include all the selections of hot dishes that the Sungiven Kitchen will include. However, our team wanted to take into consideration how COVID-19 has been affecting our other stores and how we should space out the information so that it allows for customers to read from a wider area of our store. As a result, we split up the information into 3 bigger signage overhead of the kitchen to:
a) enlarge the information
b) allow for better readability across the Sungiven Kitchen area
The decals had a similar issue, which was solved with a simple placement solution. Our team struggled with whether we wanted to place them on the top right corner or bottom right corner to allow for better readability. The top-right placement meant that customers can see more of the dishes through the clear glass window, but the bottom right placement would allow customers to learn about the item before looking at the real item.
We concluded that the decal should sit on the top right to allow customers of varying heights to see the dishes through the glass window. Having it placed on the top, we agreed that the hot item should be the first visual element customers should see, and the decal would be secondary for those who are not familiar with the dishes.
MEAT SERIES LABELS (please don’t scroll further if you are afraid to view raw meat)
This was one of my first projects and is still ongoing as of early 2021. Since the brand guidelines are going through a rebranding phase, Sungiven saw this as a good opportunity to rebrand their meat category labels, which includes beef, chicken, pork, and other specialty items such as quail.
We went through many different iterations in aiming to create a sophisticated, but playful appearance to cater to our target demographic- females aged 20 - 30. We wanted to let our customers know that our meat is supplied from trustworthy Canadian farmers who take pride in their meats.
The conclusion we came up with, was to remove any unnecessary Chinese copy on the labels so that we can minimize the complexity of the labels and to include cleaner illustrations to evoke a more modern feel. Our priority was redesigning the beef and then the chicken labels. In doing so, we were able to match the timeline of when we were also getting the new trays for the products so that it can have a polished finish.
Old existing labels (pre 2020)
Newly designed labels (post 2020)
Throughout the process, I worked closely with our Art Director to ensure that her branding guidelines are consistent and that the use of colours is not too overwhelming in creating a coding system to distinguish the different types of meat. In closely aligning these labels to the brand guidelines, it can allow our consumers to be familiarized with our overall brand image.
The most complicated part of this project was to create a grading system for our different types of meat. We initially wanted to colour code 5 categories: AAA (premium), AA (common), Marinated, Free-range, and Grass-Fed kinds of beef.
We found that if we were to code all those 5 categories, we would be abusing too many colours into this small 2.7” x 4” labels. Through customer research, we also found that the grade of the meat is secondary information to what type of meat the beef is (e.g Beef Brisket Point).
Consequently, we cut down the categories to only grade 3 categories: AAA, AA, and Angus beef and colour coded those, while having the type of beef presented as words on the label.
The image on the top left shows the first iteration of the overly complex grading system and the image on the top right shows the simplified concept. The labels are also accompanied by a bigger way-finding signage to explain how the colour coding system works.
Below are some initial concepts in trying to express a casual yet sophisticated look for the beef category labels. We also didn’t want to leave out the message that certain meats are “Free-Range” or “Grass-fed”, so we are utilizing badge-like stickers to communicate that.
