Cheryl Hunter (shelflife at marklives.com)’s weekly pick of all things new — product, packaging, design, insight, food, décor and more!
- First Base design by Inhouse
- Unilever looks for a brightFuture
- KIA sets off on World’s Longest Test Drive
Design concepts
The first branch of pizza concept store, First Base, opened its doors in Cape Town recently, where it commissioned design agency, Inhouse Brand Architects, to bring its premises to life. The basic brief included the principles of honesty, openness and creativity in the design.
Offering “fast-casual dining” in a quirky, yet simple space, the restaurant allows diners to build their own pizzas or salads by selecting ingredients from a range of toppings.
According to Inhouse director, Aidan Hart, the fast-casual restaurant promises a healthier take on fast food, with less processed ingredients and more fresh produce: “To create a fresh look to match, Inhouse started with a clean palette of muted hues, playfully laid out to create an interesting interior scheme that translates well both by day and night.”
Hart says he and designer Jenine Bruce had to take into consideration the flow of the self-service eatery and create a synergy within the space: “They place a strong focus on simplicity, with the open-plan layout reflecting the brand’s premise of being open about what goes on in the kitchen. We created a striking arrangement of colourful pentagonal tiles in muted shades of orange, green and blue, along with grey, white and brown to cascade along a feature wall and over the central part of the flooring, making a powerful statement and adding a twist of fun and creativity to the space. The pentagonal shape of the tiles also helped to inspire First Base’s branding.”
The woodfire pizza oven, painted in the orange of the First Base signage and juxtaposed against black mosaics, is the heart of the restaurant. Both to break the rhythm of the kitchen space slightly and to offer additional storage, multifunctional black timber shelving is used to display glasses and crockery.
The Milnerton restaurant is the pilot store, the first of a number of branches planned for the company, each of which will sport the features that have been brought to life by Inhouse.
inhouse.ws • Facebook • Twitter
firstbase.pizza • Facebook • Twitter
Seeking sustainability
Unilever has joined the move toward sustainability with its new global campaign, brightFuture, showing consumers how their everyday choices can make a positive impact on the world.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FKDMo9EJ7GM
New Unilever research has challenged the commonly held perception that sustainability doesn’t sell, revealing that 54% of consumers want to buy sustainably — consumers want high-performing products at the right price with a purpose they can connect to.
According to Unilever global chief marketing and communications officer, Keith Weed, Unilever’s five biggest brands — Knorr, Dove, Omo, Lipton and Hellmann’s — are all sustainable-living brands, which grew 30% faster than the rest of the business in 2015.
The film “So Long Old World” shows how Unilever is building a brighter future through its brands: Lifebuoy is teaching 300m people to wash their hands; Domestos is helping 5m people access toilets; and Omo is helping 10m children get education. This campaign is the sixth in the Unilever Sustainable Living Plan — part of its vision to decouple its growth from its environmental footprint while increasing its positive social impact.
“Sustainability is helping the business to deliver more growth and lower costs, as well as reducing risk in the supply chain and increasing trust from consumers. “Our brightFuture campaign shows people that, when they buy our products they’re not just purchasing a bar of soap, they’re enabling children to live past the age of five by helping to teach handwashing; and they’re helping children access education. Brands with a purpose are at the heart of Unilever and we believe that the small choices we all make every day can make a big difference to the world we live in.”
In its own operations, the company says it has reduced CO2 emissions from energy by 39% per tonne of production; water by 37% per tonne of production; and waste sent to disposal by 97% per tonne of production.
brightfuture.unilever.co.za • unilever.co.za • Facebook • Twitter
Putting KIA to the test
KIA Motors South Africa is embarking on should be the World’s Longest Test Drive for the launch of the all-new KIA Sportage in October 2016. The seven-day record attempt will kick off in Durban and end at Cape Point, covering six of South Africa’s nine provinces in the process.
The World’s Longest Test Drive — approximately 3000km — aims to be not only the longest in distance, but also the biggest: Featuring a fleet of 10 vehicles, the event plans to bring together hundreds of consumers from all across the country as they test-drive parts of the route in the hope of winning an all-new KIA Sportage.
David Sieff, marketing director of KIA Motors South Africa, says, “It’s a vastly improved vehicle in every way, and will prove itself over the duration of the World’s Longest Test Drive as the ultimate compact SUV for South African families.”
As part of bringing the people of SA together, KIA Motors will also be giving back to the communities on the route by delivering educational supplies to schools in need.
kiaworldrecord.co.za kicks off on 14 October.
kia.co.za • Facebook • Twitter
Shelf Life is MarkLives.com’s weekly column covering all things new. Notify us of yours at shelflife at marklives dot com. Want to sponsor Shelf Life? Contact us here.
Cheryl Hunter (@cherylhunter) has written for the South African media, marketing and advertising industries for more than 15 years. A former editor of M&M in Independent Newspapers and contributor to Bizcommunity, AdFocus, AdReview and the Ad Annual, she has also produced for various television networks and currently consults on communication strategy and media liaison.
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