The Humble Oyster
The aim of this project was to design and refresh the packaging for Killary Fjord Shellfish to help expand their market reach beyond the West of Ireland. They wanted their packaging to look as original and as high quality as possible, using sustainable materials.
My concept was based on using beech wood from the local area creating handmade wooden boxes to package the oysters in. The boxes had a dual purpose, they also acted as display units when not in use. All packaging was hand crafted in the workshop based in GMIT Letterfrack which is the National Centre for Excellence in Furniture Design and Technology.
Client: Oyster Farm Galway
Project Scope: Art direction + packaging design + display + printed matter
Project: Design West Summer School
GMIT Design Research Level 9
The Wild Atlantic Way
A little about Design West Summer School
Design West is an international summer design school located in the beautiful village of Letterfrack in Connemara, on the West Coast of Ireland. Participants get the opportunity to work with leading international designers from renowned studios across the globe. Unplugging from our hectic everyday working lives—commuting, cell phones, deadlines, media saturation—participants will immerse themselves in the wild and rugged Connemara landscape and use it both as a mode of research and as a source of inspiration.
designwest.eu
Poster celebrating The Humble Oyster
The Humble Oyster logo
The logo for The Humble Oyster is based on an old Irish typeface that hasn't seen daylight in 60 years from the National Print Museum in Dublin. As it was in Gaelic and had limited letters I had to make a ‘Y’ using a laser cutter and later the new block was added to the letter press set.
Initial packaging sketches
My packaging was based upon using native materials form the area such as beech wood. The wooden boxes are used to package the oysters but had also another purpose as display units when not in use. I designed acrylic posters that slotted into the boxes and also acted as a divider to place a booklet which tells the story about the history of The Humble Oyster. The lids of the boxes come away and can be used as chopping boards to serve the oysters on.
Behind the scenes
