Louise Marsland’s (@Louise_Marsland) pick of new product, packaging and design launches.
Design Partnership creates with Doppio Zero; Omo washes dirty laundry in public; and dressing up South Africa’s cultural heritage finds favour on social media.
Doppio Sandton’s ‘non-design’
“Non-designed” was the catchphrase for Doppio Zero’s brief to the Design Partnership team in tasking it with redesigning its Sandton City store. The restaurant chain wanted a simple, yet authentic look and feel that reflected its heritage of artisanal breads and foods prepared with fresh, quality ingredients.
“The store needed to appear handmade, with quality products and finishes. It had to look as though it had always been there and would last a lifetime still, referencing Doppio’s belief in the goodness of quality,” explains Design Partnership CEO, Callie van der Merwe. “In essence, the drive here was to emphasise the food offering, because it’s unique in that all the pastas and breads are made on site, from scratch. This needed to stand in stark contrast to the envelope of the space, which had to appear non-designed and as though the owner – a family man with mama in the kitchen – had put it together with loads of passion and love.”
This look was achieved through using multiple textures, tonalities and finishes, and in the selection of the seemingly random chairs and ‘handmade’ pizza ovens. In addition, the menu was stripped back of all clutter to really showcase the food offering.
A dirty laundry war
It seems the fad for mass ‘washerthons’ continues after the launch in South Africa by P&G of their Ariel brand, as Omo is also now washing taxi commuters clothes. It takes ‘direct marketing and experiential brand’ concepts to whole new, err, depths!
ComutaNet assisted Omo with launching its two-in-one product ‘Omo with a touch of comfort’ in an interactive campaign that saw Omo brand ambassadors collecting up to five items of clothes eachfrom taxi commuters for washing.
The Omo ‘Washa Nathi’ drive is also sharing over 300 000 samples with commuters and Omo branding is being erected at taxi ranks.
MojaNation’s cultural exchange
Bloggers at the annual Tourism Indaba, voted the South Africa Heritage and Culture Pavilion, conceptualised and developed by Joburg-based creative agency, MojaNation Exchange, as one of the best stands at Indaba this year.
A collaboration between artist James Delaney and designer Sivan Portal for MojaNation Exchange, the stand was based on the concept of a traditional circular village, dominated by a giant central tree.
It also featured themed dresses designed by SA style stars including David Tlale, Marianne Fassler and Stoned Cherrie’s Nkhensani Nkosi, which were themed interpretations of each of SA’s UNESCO World Heritage sites.
The stand included comfort areas where visitors sipped Rooibos tea.
MojaNation – One of the 8 World Heritage Site dresses, designed by Thula Sindi:
– Shelf Life by Louise Marsland is a weekly column on MarkLives. Tweet new product, packaging and design launches to @louise_marsland or email her at louise.marsland at gmail.com.
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Louise Marsland has written about the FMCG, media, marketing and advertising industry for 18 years of her 25 year media career as a former Editor of magazines AdVantage, Marketing Mix and Progressive Retailing; as well as websites Bizcommunity.com and FMCGFiles. She currently edits the weekly Wednesday Media & Marketing Page for The New Age newspaper; and is the co-founder and Publishing Editor of SA’s newly launched industry trendwatching portal, TREND. at www.trendlives.info, in partnership with MarkLives.com.
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