2024

Coop

Inspiration for Every Occasion

Scope

Brand Strategy 
Brand Narrative 
Packaging Design 
Art Direction 
Graphic Design 
Illustration
Iconography

The new Coop brand unites all Nordic markets under a single private label to create a more inspiring everyday experience. Three thousand five hundred units, often in four languages, across a wide range of categories, ranging from batteries to frozen fish to freshly squeezed juices, found their home in a design system revolving around a straightforward shape, “the plate”, as the primary carrier. The result is a design system that can be as versatile as it is recognizable.

2024

Coop

Inspiration for Every Occasion

The new Coop brand unites all Nordic markets under a single private label to create a more inspiring everyday experience. Three thousand five hundred units, often in four languages, across a wide range of categories, ranging from batteries to frozen fish to freshly squeezed juices, found their home in a design system revolving around a straightforward shape, “the plate”, as the primary carrier. The result is a design system that can be as versatile as it is recognizable.

Scope

Brand Strategy 
Brand Narrative 
Packaging Design 
Art Direction 
Graphic Design 
Illustration
Iconography

Extra design ingredients, like different claims, symbols, illustrations, typography and creative use of main plates can be added to the basic design recipes to bring functional clarity or just to make your breakfast a bit more inspiring.

The plate became the symbol for uniting four markets and brands. It consists of a superellipse integrating all previous shapes from the Nordic brands, becoming the main content carrier throughout the design. This ingenious figure, conceived by Gabriel Lamé in the eighteen-hundreds, is elastic enough to be stretched in all directions while maintaining its geometric features, making it ideal for a packaging system that includes various shapes, formats, and sizes.

01

Insight

The Nordic Coop brands have joined hands to create a more inspiring private label. This ambitious goal required a new design system encompassing 3,500 units, typically in four languages, across a wide range of categories. The packaging needed to be robust and relevant in each Nordic market, all with unique challenges, while being instantly recognizable as Coop.

02

Concept

The four nations were unified under the brand essence of bringing “inspiration for every occasion.” The straightforward strategy revolves around the most essential aspect of a meal—the dinner plate and, in particular, the food on it. The plate became the symbol for food appeal and inspiration. As a simple shape in the form of a superellipse, it unified the shapes from the previous brands into one.

03

Solution

The design system consists of an ingredient list and a design recipe with various assets that can be easily modified to suit different categories. The plate is flexible enough to be stretched in all directions without losing its geometric features. Seasoned with hand-drawn illustrations, fresh colours, and a touch of custom-type treatment, the plate becomes part of both a practical as well as inspiring design system.

Curious of how we work?
See our approach

The design process is like cooking, where design elements are like ingredients added to the plate to create a flavourful design.

A design system with over 3,500 products needs various visual components to differentiate the many categories. It doesn’t just rely on a main plate, but also uses secondary plates, colors, illustrations, photos, different layouts, and of course, typefaces. The Asian category, for instance, features a bold display typeface that echoes the calligraphic style of Asian scripts.