Lush Packaging Project
Lush, Dayfold Group, Foilicoltd and G.F.Smith
Design and produce a wellbeing toolkit featuring three lush products, a deck of 50 cards, a poster and stickers. This toolkit would be intended to be sold and used within the ‘happy place festival’.
My research into this project started with lush as a brand, with their ethos being a 100% vegetarian and ethically sourced ingredients along with their 100% recyclable packaging, I knew that sustainability was a top priority for them as a company. Doing primary research, I asked the workers a few questions about lush and this is when I discovered that within their job they are expected to complete one random act of kindness a day which in tern sparked informed my decision on where to take this mindfulness wellbeing toolkit.
Key Insight 1: People derive satisfaction from helping others, humans are social animals and are happy to help friends, family, colleagues etc. From this, random act of kindness are a good way of making new friends and starting supportive social relationships (Scott-Curry, 2016).
Key Insight 2: The impact of mindfulness-based stress reduction on young people’s mood regulation has been widely accepted in treatment. It draws increasing attention (Shapiro et al., 1998). In addition, MBSR has a significant effect on reducing symptoms such as depression, anxiety, paranoia, and sensory stress in adolescent outpatients (Diaz-Gonzalez et al., 2018).
Key Insight 3: Mindfulness research on what it is and how it affect people through stress anxiety. its easy to rush through life and stop noticing the world around us, losing touch and living in our heads. (NHS, 2018).
As this project was collaborated with Foilico we had the opportunity to explore the medium of foiling drawings. I found the process interesting and something that in theory if I had the opportunity I would incorporate into my toolkits design, adding an extra textural elements to the design.
I wanted to explore visuals that were fun and colourful using a gradient of pastels for a visually fluid and calm tone. For the general ideation of the box I created my own colourway gradients that I intended to incorporate with the idea of using random acts of kindness, I want it to be interactive in a way that is achievable to complete at the festival in a large setting surrounded by new people allowing the opportunity to form new friendships and memorious, whilst subconsciously being present in the moment when carrying out the card game.
I really liked the visuals of florals and nature to go alongside with lush ethos using soft colours with tones of pink, orange and purple. The idea was to look into inner peace and prioritising yourself first, following the concept of going back to nature/ your roots with nature holding healing properties especially mentally. I liked the idea of affirmations and using these to resemble the meaning of the plant, e.g poppy signifies remembrance so using prompts that embed memories and mindfulness activities for card prompt.
I wanted to look into mindfulness in its most literal form, for example meditation, spiritualty and astrology. I wanted to represent this through a repetitive constellation with a combination of sun, stars and the moon. The celestial art would then be finished with a foiled gold finish how I practised in the foiling workshop. The concept represents the cosmic sun and moon design in conjunction with the changes in the body and mind when practicing mindfulness which can be then taught and encouraged within the deck of cards.
Developing the toolkit to offer an engaging experience, with the focal point being a card deck centred around random acts of kindness. Users can complete these actions at their own pace, marking their achievements by placing a gold star sticker on the kindness constellation poster. This not only allows users to keep track of their progress but also fosters a sense of accomplishment. The tool-kit encourages mindfulness post-festival, enabling users to create lasting memories through thoughtful actions.