Kokako Packaging | Clare Lynch Creative – Graphic Design Services Dublin – Branding and Packaging Design

Kokako
Organic Bars Packaging

These Kokako bars are a new addition to the popular NZ-based, well-established Kokako food and coffee range for their café and other wholesale outlets. The client wanted to continue to use the friendly kiwi kokako bird used in their branding for these organic, healthy bars.

The characters I created for this range provide a friendly and fun feel, along with bright, diffrientiating colours, to attract attention on the store and cafe shelves. This brand has a quirky style to it and this is represented here also.

Displayed are the colourful and friendly healthy Kokako snack options, photographed having fun in their natural environment.

*Freelance whilst at Design Dairy

The Tasting Vault: Brand Packaging Design

Branding, Design, Packaging

The Tasting Vault: Brand Packaging Design
Whiskey Tasting Subscription Services

The Tasting Vault is a whiskey and spirits subscription service that provides consumers with curated tasting experiences, allowing them to explore a wide range of premium whiskeys from around the world. The company solves the “try before you buy” challenge by offering tasting packs that let customers sample new and famous whiskeys before committing to full bottles.

Their subscription service is designed to engage both beginners and seasoned connoisseurs through expert tasting notes, digital content, and invitations to exclusive events, both virtual and in-person. By working with distilleries in Ireland and internationally, The Tasting Vault offers access to a curated selection of world-class spirits, fostering a loyal community of whiskey enthusiasts, who have the option to connect and engage with each-other through this whiskey tasting club.

Their mission is to cultivate a deep appreciation for fine whiskeys and spirits through unique, curated tasting experiences. Their vision is to become the leading platform for whiskey exploration, creating meaningful connections among a global community of enthusiasts. Quality craftsmanship, community building, and an authentic whiskey experience are key values of The Tasting Vault.

The challenge for The Tasting Vault was to create a packaging design reflecting the premium, sophisticated, and community-driven nature of their whiskey subscription service. The design needed to solve two key issues: communicating the exclusivity and luxury of the product, while offering practicality for repeated monthly deliveries of different whiskey varieties. The packaging needed to be functional yet visually compelling, enhancing the unboxing experience for consumers to share on social media. Furthermore, the design needed to accommodate 3 x 50ml whiskey bottles with flexibility for monthly variations, while remaining compact and easy to ship.

The core idea behind the design draws inspiration from the brand’s ethos of connecting people with fine spirits. The minimalist approach incorporates a modern vault symbol, subtly referencing the monthly “drop” of whiskey, and reinforcing the idea of treasured, curated experiences delivered directly to the consumer’s door. A blend of luxury, authenticity, and community was key.

A key feature of the design is the brand’s “V” symbol, which represents the word “Vault” and subtly incorporates a whiskey droplet within the “V,” symbolising the monthly delivery of curated whiskey selections – their monthly drop. The tagline, “Taste. Connect. Enjoy.” captures the essence of the brand, communicating its message in a sophisticated yet friendly tone. The vault-inspired design is enhanced with gold foil debossing, giving the packaging an air of exclusivity. The ample spacing around the bottles adds to the luxury feel, while tabs ensure the bottles are easily accessible. Inside the lid, the playful message “Good Things Come in Small Packages” adds a light-hearted element, complementing the overall elegance. Social media details are included to encourage consumer engagement and help grow the brand’s online community.

Each bottle is labelled with the brandmark and whiskey details on a transparent background, allowing the whiskey’s amber hue to shine through. These labels are designed for easy updating, adapting to the monthly subscription model. The bold Causten Rounded font combines softened edges with a sophisticated tone, conveying a friendly yet premium feel to the brand.

The packaging also includes a bespoke insert card with detailed information about that month’s whiskey selections, adding a personal touch. A 20-page tasting notes booklet further enriches the consumer experience, allowing customers to log their impressions and learn more about whiskey tasting. Clever phrases are used in the booklet such as “unlock a world of whiskey” to tie into the vault theme, reinforcing the brand’s identity.

This thoughtful and recyclable packaging design reflects the brand’s values of premium quality, authenticity, and community, offering a refined yet accessible experience that is both visually striking and highly functional.

The packaging design for The Tasting Vault strikes a perfect balance between luxury and functionality, offering a sleek unboxing experience, while showcasing the brand’s dedication to authenticity and craftsmanship. The packaging is made from 1000gsm greyboard and wrapped in black beater-dyed paper, giving it a solid, premium feel. Its rigid, hinged-lid design includes die cuts to securely hold three 50ml whiskey bottles, ensuring both safe transportation and a refined presentation.

Follow The Tasting Vault online:

Instagram: @the_tasting_vault

Twitter / X: @thetastingvault

Website: www.thetastingvault.com

Photography by Brendan Ryan Photography:

Instagram: @brendanryanphoto

Website: www.brendanryan.ie

Packaging printed by JJ O’Toole:

Instagram: @jjotoole_ie

Website: www.jjotoole.ie

Labels by BrandPack

Instagram: @brandpackireland

Website: www.brandpack.ie

Grásome! Gluten-free Brownies: Brand Packaging Design

Branding, Design, Packaging

Grásome! Award-Winning Brownies: Brand Packaging Design

Grásome! is an artisan award-winning brand born out of the passion for creating luxurious gluten-free treats that are not only delicious but also fun and playful. Ruth, the founder, draws inspiration from her rich French-Irish heritage, her personal baking journey, and her love of good food. The brand’s mission is to provide indulgent, hand-crafted treats made from the finest natural ingredients, all while bringing a smile to the consumer’s face. With a tagline that reads “Gorgeously Gluten Free,” Grásome! speaks to those seeking both high-quality and allergy-conscious products without compromising on taste or style.

The name Grásome! perfectly encapsulates the essence of the brand, combining the Irish word “Grá” (meaning “love”) with a playful twist on the word “awesome.” The result is a name that feels both familiar and exciting, resonating with Ruth’s fun, vibrant personality. It’s a brand that isn’t afraid to be glamorous yet unpretentious, offering gluten-free indulgences with a wink of fun and light-heartedness. The nod to her influential aunt Gráinne, a passionate coeliac, baker and advocate for gluten-free products, adds a personal touch to the name, reinforcing the love and care behind every product.

Grásome! stands out not only for its delectable products but also for its strong, memorable visual identity. We approached the branding with the goal of blending luxury, fun, and warmth – all key aspects of the product’s personality. The product flavour names incorporate a rustic, earthy font that mimics the textures found in brownies, cakes, and baking, emphasising the hand-made nature of the products. The letter ‘O’ is cleverly replaced with a heart, signifying both love and the personal care that goes into every batch. The fada (accent) on the ‘a’ is stylized as a leaf, symbolising the brand’s use of natural ingredients. The exclamation mark at the end of the name encapsulates the brand’s energetic, fun vibe, tying back to the playfulness of the word “awesome.” The tagline “Gorgeously Gluten Free” sits beneath the brand name in a handwritten font, reinforcing the personal, hand-crafted element of the brand while also making the gluten-free aspect clear and prominent.

The colour palette is designed to be bright and vibrant, reflecting the client’s ethos of living life to the fullest and embracing boldness. It ensures the product stands out on the shelf, commanding attention rather than blending into the background. Each flavour is represented by a distinct, vivid hue—green for the original flavour and orange for the orange variety—highlighting the brand’s playful and energetic character. The use of gold foil adds a touch of luxury, reinforcing the high quality of the products while maintaining a warm, approachable aesthetic.

The packaging design features a cardboard sleeve with a heart-shaped cutout on the front, mirroring the heart in the logo. This allows the consumer to catch a glimpse of the brownies inside, creating an instant emotional connection. Gold foil lines radiate out from the heart cutout in a celebratory style, further enhancing the premium feel. The back of the packaging includes a personal note from Ruth, inviting consumers to share in the love and care she pours into her products:

“For a truly indulgent experience, try our award-winning luxurious gluten-free brownies, lovingly handmade using simple natural ingredients, no preservatives ever added… simply pure grá.

Love, Ruth x”

Sustainability is a key pillar of the Grásome! brand, reflected in the fully recyclable packaging. This aligns with Ruth’s values and her personal experiences living in eco-conscious environments like New Zealand and Antarctica. The reusable delivery boxes also emphasize the brand’s commitment to reducing waste.

The primary typeface, Big City Grotesque Pro, provides a clean, modern look, ensuring legibility and consistency across all brand materials. To balance this with a more playful touch, HelloMixed, a quirky, display font, is used for headings and flavour titles, mimicking the playful and earthy nature of the brand. Arsilon, a handwritten font, is reserved for smaller descriptors like “Gorgeously Gluten Free,” adding a personal, friendly feel to the packaging and marketing collateral.

Grásome! successfully redefines the perception of gluten-free products, celebrating them as indulgent, luxurious, and full of character. A proud finalist in the 2024 Irish Quality Food and Drink Awards, the brand stands as a testament to Ruth’s deep-rooted love of food, family heritage, and personal journey in mastering gluten-free baking. Through thoughtful design and a playful yet elegant brand identity, Grásome! communicates its promise to deliver treats that are not only delicious but also made with love, care, and passion. The packaging itself becomes part of the experience, making Grásome! treats perfect for sharing, gifting, or savoring all to oneself.

In a competitive gluten-free market, Grásome! proudly stands out as a brand that marries luxury and fun, offering consumers a product that doesn’t compromise on quality, style, or taste.

Follow Grásome! online:

Instagram: @grasome_treats

Twitter / X: @Grasome_treats

Website: Grásome Website

Packaging printed by Esmark Finch:

Instagram: @esmarkfinchprintandpackaging

Facebook: @Esmark-Finch-Print-and-Packaging

Website: Esmark Finch

The Woofing Oven Dog Bakery: Brand Packaging Design

Branding, Packaging

The Woofing Oven Dog Bakery: Brand Packaging Design

The Woofing Oven is a Dublin-based home-run bakery for dogs, crafting a fun and creative range of gourmet treats to pamper your furry friends with the love and care they deserve.

The Woofing Oven firmly craft their dog treats with love, care, and thoughtfulness. All of their products are homemade and created in small batches, reaffirming their commitment to producing celebratory dog treats made from 100% natural ingredients, locally sourced, and proudly the first specialised treats produced and marketed in Ireland.

Their mission is to become Ireland’s foremost dog bakery, expanding their product range while remaining dedicated to their goal of being a part of your dog’s milestone moments.

The Woofing Oven’s packaging design challenge was to create a visually striking, retail-ready package that reflects the brand’s fun, celebratory nature while emphasizing its commitment to quality, natural ingredients, and Irish craftsmanship. The existing brand (formerly known as Bon A Pet Treats) needed a fresh identity that would stand out in a crowded dog food aisle, making the transition from local markets to mainstream retail.

The packaging had to balance playfulness and sophistication, capturing the brand’s core values: gourmet quality, homemade care, and the celebration of the bond between dogs and their owners. Our goal was to create a design that was instantly recognizable, incorporating bright and vibrant colours with a playful dog icon and a fun logo featuring flicks reminiscent of dog tails. The use of fonts like FTF Brotein for headings and Hittedal Script for a handwritten touch helped to convey the brand’s personal, handcrafted approach.

The packaging design for The Woofing Oven reflects the brand’s mission to provide gourmet, all-natural dog treats in a way that’s both fun and functional, while ensuring retail success. One of the standout features of the packaging is the window at the front of the packs, which showcases the product itself – “Woofles,” a unique waffle treat for dogs. This window is framed by a graphic of a dog bowl, with an illustration of two paws holding the bowl on either side. The product’s appearance is a key selling point, and this window allows the Woofles to be seen directly, reinforcing the quality and novelty of the treat.

To further enhance flavour recognition, each flavour pack features a distinct colour, making it easy for consumers to differentiate between products on the shelf. The flavour description sits within the dog bowl graphic on the front, adding clarity to the playful design. An icon with a paw print containing a heart is prominently displayed alongside the text “Made with love, using natural ingredients,” reinforcing the brand’s commitment to homemade, high-quality products crafted with care.

The back of the pack offers additional features aimed at connecting with consumers. It includes a personal brand story, helping to establish the business as a small, local bakery with a strong passion for dogs. Feeding instructions are displayed with icons showing portion sizes for different dog breeds, helping consumers make informed decisions based on their dog’s size. Another unique element is the barcode, shaped like a dog, adding creativity that aligns with the fun, dog-centric theme.

The packaging highlights the product’s sustainability, featuring an icon communicating that the pack is widely recyclable, as it’s made from polyethylene (PE). Small visual touches throughout the design, such as icons of a plant with the phrase “Freshly baked, no preservatives” and an illustration of an owner with their dog, further that these treats are healthy, natural, and designed specifically for dogs.

The Woofing Oven’s packaging design strikes the perfect balance between playful visual elements and key functional features, making it memorable, engaging, and informative for dog lovers seeking premium treats.

Follow The Woofing Oven on Social Media:

Instagram: @thewoofingoven

Facebook: The Woofing Oven

Packaging printed by Epac Flexibles:

Instagram: @epacflexiblepackaging

Website: epacflexibles.com

The Galway Kitchen: Hot Pot Ready Meals Packaging Design

Branding, Packaging

The Galway Kitchen: Hot Pot Ready Meals Packaging Design

The Galway Kitchen’s food range includes global flavours, inspired by much-loved tastes from around the world, made in their kitchen at the heart of Galway.

The Galway Kitchen brand already existed for their popular houmous dips range when they contacted Clare Lynch Creative. They asked if we could create the packaging design for these hot pot ready meals, to work well alongside their existing houmous range, and also the snack pack range and tasty dips range designed by Clare Lynch Creative, which incorporate bright mediterranean patterns alongside clean, minimal typography and imagery, whilst bringing a fresher vibrant look to the packs to ensure a strong and bold standout impact on shelves.

Another brief request was to show the quality and wholesomeness of the meals by including mouth-watering photography taken by @jenniferocooks. Jennifer also took beautiful in-situ shots of the finished products with their packaging on completion, with the ingredients displayed around the tubs. The Galway Kitchen were delighted with the final design outcome of the range altogether and how well it fits with the rest of their brand range. See their testimonial here…

They are available in @tescoirl stores.

The tasty trio of innovative recipes are inspired by global flavours and made locally in Galway. There is Green Lentil Dahl, Smoked Bacon Mac & Cheese and Japanese-inspired Chicken Katsu Curry. Designed with convenience, great taste and nutrition in mind, these ready meals are a quick and healthy lunch option. The high protein recipes have been developed by their expert team of in-house chefs and are available at Tesco Ireland.

The Galway Kitchen range is available at selected Tesco Ireland stores:

Find them in the fridge at your local Tesco Ireland

www.tesco.ie

www.instagram.com/tescoirl/

Follow The Galway Kitchen at:

@thegalwaykitchen

Photography by Jennifer Oppermann:

@jenniferocooks

www.jenniferoppermann.com

Packaging printed by Priory Press Packaging.

The Galway Kitchen are produced by quality Irish fine food producer Galmere Foods.