I thought about the design of a private brand ⸜( ́ ꒳ ' )⸝ ~Lawson edition~

2023.09.04

ﾌﾟ（「ﾌﾟ」は半角ｶﾅ）

Hello,
I recently bought Beats headphones
"Pu ("Pu" is a half-width kana)".
(You don't have to pronounce the part of ("pu" is a half-width kana)
(Of course, beats are also used (12,000 yen))

Suddenly, I am a former Lawson crew.
Last time, I wrote a long article about Seven Premium, but it is Lawson Crew.

Such a former Lawson crew "Pu ("Pu" is a half-width Kana)", but
I almost knocked down once while at work, saying, "What is this!"

It was about three years ago, when I was about to restock the product as usual.
When I casually looked into the container filled with products, I found that all the product packaging had been transformed into a completely indistinguishable design.
There was no color coding for each product at all, and I had to rely only on the small product photo in the center of the package to sort it, and I was so troublesome that I wet my pillow with tears every night.

This time, I would like to talk about the importance of "ease of understanding" in the design renovation of Lawson's private brand.

Contents

1 What is the "intention" of Lawson's drastic design renewal?
2 What is the main reason for the "big flame"?
3 The importance
of "clarity" in design4 Summary
5 Reference site

Contents

1 What is the "intention" of Lawson's drastic design renewal?
2 What is the main reason for the "big flame"?
3 The importance of "clarity" in design
4 summary
5 Reference site

What is the "intention" of Lawson's drastic design renewal?

In 2020, Lawson significantly revamped the design of its private label.

The previous design was close to that of "Seven Premium", which completely pushed out the product image, but
The design after the renewal is a simple and cute design based on beige.

Lawson adopted this simple design in all of its products to unify its own brand.

As a major reason for the design renewal, Mr. Ooki Sato, who was in charge of the design, explained as follows.

"Instead of large product photos like those found in conventional packaging, we aimed to create a soft expression that is easy for women to pick up by using a gentle font and hand-drawn illustrations that clearly show the contents and ingredients in a pattern.

The simplicity of this design somehow reminds me of MUJI.
Perhaps the designer, Mr. Sato, made this renovation with the aim of creating a simple and cute design like MUJI that will be loved by customers for a long time.
So, what happened as a result of the renewal...

What is the main reason for the "big flame"?

No way, no way. This new design was very unpopular in the world.
The reason was that, as explained in the "anger episode" at the beginning, it was "difficult to distinguish between products".

The image above shows the packaging design of the beverage at the beginning of the renewal.

Compare these products and say, "This is green tea! I don't think anyone can tell the difference in an instant.
The reason is probably that there are no features of each product that can be seen at a glance.

In response to this renewal, there were many voices of dissatisfaction from the public, saying that it was "difficult to understand" and "anti-universal design".
On the other hand, there were not a few people who described this design as "cute".
This design, which eliminated the "vulgarity" of convenience stores and put "cuteness and classiness" on the forefront, was attracting attention "in a good way" on some social media such as Instagram.

The importance of "clarity" in design

As a result of the renewal, Lawson's package design has gone on fire, but of course it didn't mean that I didn't do anything like this.
In response to the criticism that it was "difficult to understand", Lawson will revamp the package design again.
The design retained the "cuteness" and made it easier to distinguish between products.

The

changes are roughly as follows.
・The product name is larger and easier to see (I really don't understand why the old design is English dominant for some reason!) ）
・Product images are now posted larger, making it easier to understand what is commercialized
・In addition to the base color, beige, point colors have been set for each product to make it easier to distinguish (mainly changes in products in the beverage category).

As a result, many people in the public commented that it had become easier to understand.
(at the same time, my anger at the Lawson crew subsided)

In this way, "clarity" is very important not only in packaging but also in design.
No matter how fashionable and attractive it is, if it is difficult to understand what you want to attract attention and clearly distinguish, the viewer will be confused.
In design, it is important to make it intuitively understandable to the viewer.

Now, let's talk about what "easy-to-understand design" mainly is, but
This seems to be a long story, so I think I'll talk about it another time...