Sisters Natalie and Karen Keane began selling their delicious chocolates at the Honest to Goodness market in Glasnevin. At first they wrapped the chocolate using brown paper, which allowed them to change and experiment, and to easily respond to customer feedback. After six months – when they felt they were ready to distribute more widely – they made the decision that they would work with a designer to produce something that connected with their own outlook and reflected a product they felt connected with their customers in a more human way than the presentation of prominent high-street brands did.
Natalie and Karen had seen and liked the work of Designgoat, mostly in the interiors and furniture of “cafe’s and restaurants that we liked”. They got in touch with the designers to see if they would be interested in taking on a challenge outside of the studio’s normal scope of work; the focus of which is product, interiors, furniture and exhibition design. “We weren’t looking for packaging designers, we were looking for someone who would be able to understand our customers.”
Several options were explored before the final route emerged – taking the visual language of food photography and appropriating it for packaging. Once this was established as the route, Designgoat worked with photographer Al Higgins to finalise the outcomes. The resulting packaging “actually opened doors for us — our products ended up in design and lifestyle shops, simply because of the way they looked. The products need to look good to both get onto the shelf as well as off it.”
As the production runs have increased unit costs have come down, to almost half of what they were at first. “Figuring in the cost of production is a factor that we worked through with the designers. There is no point designing something amazing that can’t be realised,” says Keane.
Bean and Goose and Designgoat continue to work together as new packaging designs are required, as well as producing products to accompany and promote the chocolate. For example, this Christmas Designgoat made a solid oak box to contain a limited edition extra large bar, complete with a brass & wood hammer to break it into edible chunks.
Words: David Wall
