Tea Quiero Lyreco

Agency: Brand Junkies
Creative Director: Matthew Phillips
Designer: Rick Sonnemans
Designer: Frank Jacobs
Designer: Nicky de Weger
Location: Netherlands
Project Type: Produced
Client: Catunambú
Product Launch Location: Global
Packaging Contents: Tea
Packaging Substrate / Materials: Paper
Printing Process: Digital printing

Our design challenge
The brief was complex and involved many stakeholders and investors. Realizing all of their dreams and ambitions meant developing a brand and creating a graphic packaging system that appealed to all, while being truly unique in the market.

Tea Quiero is a sub-brand of an established Spanish premium coffee company located in Seville – Catunambú. The Tea Quiero brand is based in the Netherlands, and as part of their brand and sales expansion plan, an exclusive deal was made with Lyreco – a worldwide distributer of office supplies and workplace products. Our design team was tasked with creating a ‘professional label’ to be exclusively distributed through the Lyreco sales channels by their dedicated team, to compete against established brands, leading to brand preference and repeat orders.

Tea Quiero is Spanish for ‘I love you’ and was an unknown brand in the business-to-business world, and simply had to make an instant impact in the B2B world. As we know, people taste with their eyes – meaning our packaging had to stand out amongst the competition. The design also had to be live within our customer’s office space as the packaging is placed in canteens and other rest areas – as many of the target demographic are large corporate and government offices with 500+ FTEs, the design of the packaging is of upmost importance, as they have invested heavily in creating a human focused workplace environment.

What makes it special
The striking graphics were inspired by the Moorish ceramic tile designs from 711AD, a cultural reference to Seville, where the Moors introduced a variety of artistic techniques, including a unique way of painting ceramic tiles called ‘Zellige’. Each flavor caries a graphic approach and is printed to give the ‘Zellige’ ceramic feel, and each pattern acts as a flavor identification system. The white space is a base for the hand-crafted tiles and the colours indicate the flavors and infusions of the individually packaged ‘ceramic tiles’ tea-bag envelope within. The tower form of the box, which doubles as a dispenser unit has been especially designed to suit the business to business clientele.

This is a truly unique approach to the saturated tea market where the usual method is to illustrate the ingredients and use light pastel shades. We have used strong and bold colours on a bed of white, completely against the usual full printed packaging of competitor brands. We do not show the ingredients preferring to depict the flavours through colour combinations.

Standing out
The fact that each box has been designed with a unique pattern referencing the ancestral home of the brand and is delivered in a truly modern way makes the visual aspect exceptional. The tower form of the box, which doubles as a dispenser unit is a novel approach that has been especially designed for the B2B world for placement in office rest areas. Each tea bag is individually wrapped in a specially designed ‘tile‘ for freshness – the whole system makes it easy for busy office workers to grab a quick drink on the go. Convenient, memorable and striking.

The product is a Fairtrade tea, especially blended and infused with the finest ingredients by a leading tea sommelier in Sri Lanka. To match his exacting standards, the packaging had to be as strong and unique as his infusions. Our packaging is truly an infusion in its own right – a blend of the old world and the modern, harnessing traditional Islamic art and ensuring it has a place in the modern world. The craft and artisanal heritage of the art is clearly represented and the expression of the flavours, delivered with complete confidence ensures this range and ultimately the brand stands out, catches the customer’s attention and ultimately leads to sales and brand preference.