Viên 圓 – Fullmoon Festival

Design: Hoa Nguyen (AJ)
Location: Vietnam
Project Type: Concept
Packaging Contents: Mooncake
Packaging Substrate / Materials: Cardboard, paper

Context
Starting from the agricultural origin, Full-moon Festival (Mid-Autumn festival) is a special occasion that happens in the 16th of August (Lunar calendar), when the weather becomes comfortable, and people is looking for a bumper harvest season. It’s the time for everybody to put aside all the works, the worries and gather together to enjoy a cup of tea with moon-cakes, and watching the beautiful full moon. Until now, Full-moon Festival is still celebrated every year, is still an occasion for family reunion and sharing the most complete moment.

That is why Full-moon Festival is also known as the Gathering Festival in East Asia culture.

Concept – Gathering Festival
Naturally, Full-moon Festival and the circle has a tight bond. First is the image of the full moon, following is the baked cake and lantern which were made by round shapes, and condensing in the image of the round table, where the whole family gather to enjoy the meal. The circle not only visually describes Full-moon Festival, but also truly presents the spirit of it – wholeness, fullness and togetherness.

The Circle in Vietnamese national language is Tròn, which has equal meaning with Viên 圓, a Vietnamese – Chinese word which belongs to the term Đoàn Viên 團圓, means family gathering.

By using the circles to illustrate different moments of human life, especially the activities of Fullmoon festival on the moon-cake packaging, the packaging becomes a medium to confirm the existence of the circles around us and link them with the concept of togetherness. Therefore, every time people see a circle, that basic shape can remind them about the family, the reunion and the love among them all.

Viên 圓 – beautiful and complete as the Full-moon Festival that the East Asian is proud of.

Color scheme
Picking out from the brilliant activities of Full-moon Festival; however, the colors are in low chrome to create the feeling of traditional printed colors.

Progress
The moments of Full-moon Festival are simplified by using mass of circles, which make symbols and are used to create patterns. Each moment has a visual set to represent it, including a symbol, a pattern and a color palette.

Four visual sets are applied to develop four unique looks of the moon cakes and their packs.

• Set 01 – Visualized the street full of lanterns – only happens on Full-moon festival.
• Set 02 – Visualized the family table – a set of moon cakes and green tea for family members to enjoy.
• Set 03 – Visualized the lantern parade – each kid has a lantern to join the parade under the moon light.
• Set 04 – Visualized the lion dance – four lions dance with Mr. Địa (Asia Earth God)