Designers are having to reconcile brand guidelines with national and celebratory imagery without being too kitsch or jingoistic. Other hurdles include legality &ndash no pictures of the queen &ndash and the fact that there are no official branded jubilee products. One solution is to create nonspecific national celebratory imagery, while avoiding muddling the statement with that other national celebration this summer, the london olympics.
Design bridge&rsquos limitededition packaging for tate & lyle&rsquos golden syrup launches this week and the consultancy has done away with &lsquolyle&rsquos golden syrup&rsquo in favour of &lsquohappy and glorious.&rsquo the 19thcentury brand, which was founded under queen victoria&rsquos reign carries a royal warrant, and asa cook, design director of design bridge says there was scope to &lsquoavoid any jingoistic or cliched connotations&rsquo and instead look to &lsquothe emotional aspect and a sense of community.&rsquo cook says &lsquosome of the icons for these events are obvious. I don&rsquot want to write in huge letters jubilee. It&rsquos important to celebrate without being seen as jumping on a bandwagon&rsquo.
Detail from the brand&rsquos filigree style rendering have been applied to a crown design and the logo arch &lsquoseamlessly blends&rsquo the new happy and glorious language, says cook. The project follows design bridge&rsquos to have to hold royal icing sugar work for tate and lyle last year in the runup to the royal wedding, where the consultancy again built a design around playful language and consumer familiarity with the brand.
Hornall anderson&rsquos jubilee edition of marmite or ma&rsquoamite as they&rsquove branded it geddit &ndash takes a similar route, conveying occasion and ceremony, with the tagline &lsquotoasting the queen&rsquos diamond jubilee.&rsquo the colours have been changed to red white and blue and a reference made to the national flag &lsquoin a way which doesn&rsquot detract from the brand power, yet still honours the celebration,&rsquo says hornall anderson design director matt gandy. &lsquowith other limited editions we&rsquove done for marmite, the design has been led by the change in flavour &ndash like guinness, or champagne, but this time we&rsquove got union jack and crown equities to play with as well,&rsquo says gandy.
The crown has been played with very carefully mind, within guidelines set by the the lord chamberlain&rsquos office. Ma &lsquoamite special edition by hornall anderson &lsquoyou can&rsquot use the queen&rsquos crown, coat of arms, or lots of other personal imagery, so we&rsquove redrawn the crown in a more &ldquomarmite&rdquo way,&rsquo says gandy. These designs will soon be joined by many others. Brandopus has already delivered jubilee packaging for twinings tea and is currently working on no less then four separate jubilee briefs for other companies. Roll out the bunting, and the barrel maybe.
