The ubiquitous loaf of crusty bread is found everywhere, a food staple, the original slow food, artisanal in the hands of a craft baker, but in the world of branding it is very much a commodity.
Here in NYC it’s high art at Sullivan Street Bakery or the like, both in baking and branding, but most often a more humble version is found in the corner markets in the city. The loaves from the neighborhood bakeries that supply these markets, are often packaged in generic bakery bags.
Packaging is a collection of clip art and visual cliche, oddly most of this bread comes from 4th or 5th generation family bakeries. These simple and unpretentious packages are strangely endearing, yet one wonders if reimagined visual and a bit of design would net packaging that relates to a broader consumer audience. I selected a sampling of bags and redesigned them. My intent was to focus on retaining aspects of the original package design to build richer brand stories.
