Royal India Packaging; Before and After

Who doesn’t love a good before and after photo (except for weight loss because that’s toxic AF)? In early 2020, we worked with Royal India on their packaging. The full scope included a brand refresh, print collateral, and package design for their in house food.

At this point, Royal India was one of the largest projects I’d booked. We worked together on a brand refresh and a lot of print collateral for the restaurant like fliers, business cards, menus, catering postcards, etc. Our scope also included packaging for 5 different food items in 2 different sizes. Here’s the full scope we created labels for:

• House Roasted Chai 16 oz.
• House Roasted Chai 8 oz.
• Ghee 16 oz.
• Candied Saunf 8 oz.
• Mango Pickle 8 oz.
• Golden Turmeric Milk 16 oz.
• Golden Turmeric Milk 8 oz.

Here you can see the packaging they were using before we worked together. This was after the brand refresh, so as a placeholder they used the secondary logo we created. They were using a variety of different vessels, which made it hard to have consistent labels throughout. In addition, the jars they were using had a textured side, so we couldn’t stick labels to them.

I’ve tried all of their products, and they’re FAR better than this packaging makes them look. In addition to selling these goods in their own restaurants, Royal India wants to be stocked in local stores. With their previous packaging, that just wasn’t a possibility.

Our goal in working together was to create a cohesive identity across their packaging. We wanted an eye catching design that would stop a viewer casually looking through the shelves of a store. The brand had quite a few colors, so we assigned a color to each product.

Sourcing Vessels

Sourcing isn’t part of packaging when working with me, so it was up to the client to source the vessels. I weighed in on occasion, but ultimately the decision was up to them. This project fell right when C*vid was first developing, so supply chains were an issue. It took a while for the client to source vessels that felt on brand, could be packaged in house, and didn’t require massive minimums.

While they were working on sourcing, I was working on labels. I had created labels during the brand refresh phase for mockups, but the clients were heading in a different direction with vessels, so I adapted the designs I’d already begun. The client sent samples of the vessels to me so I could order test prints. After shipping items across the country several times, we were finally ready to order the final labels.

Design Considerations

For now, the client planned on continuing to package and assemble these items in house, so that had to be considered in the design and printing. I needed to work with a vendor with relatively small minimums that the client could order from on their own again in the future. There are three pieces to each package – the primary label on the front of the item, the colored strip sealing the lid, and a branded sticker in the top middle of the lid.

• 

• 

Product Photography

After a LOT of trial and error with the label design, we moved on to the next phase of the scope: product photography. Royal India planned on selling their goods on their website, so it was important to capture high quality images. A beautiful brand doesn’t mean much if it’s not carried out well, and product photography is part of a cohesive brand.

But, before the shoot itself there was a lot of sourcing and prep work. Both the clients and I gathered on brand props. I prepared the jars with the branded labels and products inside. Additionally, I prepared some of the food items so we could capture them in lifestyle type shots. We captured both ‘plain’ shots for the product description and lifestyle shots of the goods. I was thrilled with the end result of the shoot!

I had such an amazing time art directing this shoot. I worked with my favorite brand photographer, Kayley Lorraine, who also happens to be an expert stylist. She captured these stunning images for us.

The End Result

Ultimately, our time together accomplished the goal: creating stunning packaging for their delicious foods. The gallery below shows the power of a good brand, thoughtful packaging, and high end brand photography.

• 

• 

• 

•