Recently, we have been invited by DesighRush to participate in their article “The Best Frozen Product Packaging Designs“. Our packaging design for CFruit was chosen to be listed among other wonderful designs from all over the world. It’s a great honor to be in such good company.

Big THANKS to the DesignRush expert team for choosing us. Also, a very special THANKS to the CFruit team for a great collaboration. It inspires us to be better and create more beautiful projects.

Recently, we had a great pleasure to be included in the new issue of Creativver Packen Magazine. We shared our experiences with designing coffee packaging for several new brands from all over the world. Here is the entire article for you to enjoy.

The coffee industry has rapidly grown in the past years. Many new brands and small producers are trying to find their place in the local and global markets. Like a few other products before, coffee opened the whole new world of trends, brewers, rich flavors, and packaging designs that follow. It became a fashionable thing more than ever before.

Designing a coffee packaging is always a great challenge. Creating a unique visual identity that can stand out from the competition is just one part of the puzzle. If you have a strong illustration background, it can give you wonderful potential. For the last two years, Creative Lemon design studio had an opportunity to work on many coffee brands from all over the world. Most of these brands were brand new and help them to develop from the start was a great journey. Each of them has its unique story that needs to be explored. Sometimes it is all about the origin, sometimes it is more about the cause, and in some cases, it is both. Telling that story in a visual way and introducing it to the world became our specialty.

One of the coffee brands that have an incredibly unique story is Gora coffee. It’s a Danish brand with Ethiopian origin. Grown, roasted, and packed in Ethiopia, it has a great “impact at origin”. It means that production involves the local population (about 15 million people in Ethiopia depends on the coffee industry). Also, this coffee has a very unique flavor. The Arabica plants are sustainably grown in the shade of the forest canopy. There, the coffee cherries ripen slowly, absorbing nutrients and flavors of the forest, its fallen fruits, and rich flora. A very important role in this chain has insect and nectar-eating birds. They clean the plants so there is no need to use pesticides. That fact was a leading idea for the packaging design. The other brand that has an interesting background is Zemi coffee. This brand has a clear mission – to support small coffee producers and plantations all over the world and help the farmers to continue with sustainable production. The owner of this brand is coming from the family of coffee farmers, so he is very much involved in every step of the production too. Working with these small companies gave us a chance to learn more about the process and be involved. Also, it gave us a clear picture of the problems that need to be solved.

It became clearer that we need to think not only about the designs but also about packaging production as an important step. When you are designing for established brands with strong budgets, you can be creative with materials. But, when you are designing for small company brands, you have limited budgets that you need to use wisely. It is already a great challenge for them to go with sustainable production and reduce CO2 footprint. So, invest in a sustainable coffee bag’s material, in the beginning, can be a tough decision to make.

To keep the coffee fresh, packaging must meet some standards. It is extremely challenging to replace plastic or aluminum bags with plant-based, biodegradable, and CO2-neutral materials. Nowadays, there are more and more options that can be explored and used. But it takes time and money to invest. We can only support our clients and hope that they will survive the economic challenges long enough to become proud owners of all sustainable brands. One thing is for sure – now is the best time to be involved in the coffee packaging design revolution.

Holidays are over and it’s time to start a new business year. We are all a little bit superstitious about this, we want to start it well and make it fruitful in the end. If you already created your New Year’s resolution list, then start with changing. If you haven’t, shame on you! Don’t be lazy and try to copy the one from last year. Grab your pen, laptop or phone and start from scratch. There must be some mountain that you want to concur and make yourself proud.

Those who work as entrepreneurs know how tricky this list can be. There are a lot of things you need to accomplish and also, there are twice as many you want to accomplish. And needing vs. wanting is a hard battle. You’ll always need a few more hours to read, finish a personal project or just contemplate. So, how to work on that and make peace with yourself?

#1 RESOLUTION – For a start, try working more on things you love. It can be hard, as sometimes you need to work just to pay the bills, we all do. But, try to make an effort and find a new opportunity that will give you a chance to shine. In that way, you will be more productive and happier in the end. Remember, money can’t buy happiness and sometimes that is all that you need.

#2 RESOLUTION – To be able to take a new chance, maybe you will need an upgrade. So, learn something new. Take your time and learn a new skill, language or simply try to work in a new field of business. It will help you see the bigger picture and avoid the same patterns.

#3 RESOLUTION – O, yes – patterns. It’s so easy to slip into the routine and run the same race every day. It’s safe and it will work well. But are you really fine with just well? We didn’t think you are. So, change the way you do the work. There are is a very interesting book called “WHEN” by Daniel Pink. It will help you create new and better habits and get rid of the old ones. Maybe you will find a new daily dynamic, who knows.

#4 RESOLUTION – Find your balance. Remember, you are not your work. It is something that you are skilled in, so you can make the money with it. The other part of your life needs you too. To be able to accomplish everything, you need your life balance first. Don’t avoid your private life and hide behind the higher goals.

#5 RESOLUTION – Just be happy with yourself. Grow and learn, so you can go further. Explore and be curious, so you can dream. Don’t bother with everyone’s opinion, just with ones that really matter.

Recently, we had a chance to work with many entrepreneur companies. Whether they grow a new brand or service they all need to promote their business. They need an idea of how to position themselves on the market. Most of them check the competition and think that they easily can be better than that. They try to create some promo materials on their own, and the feedback they get is average or maybe poor. Why is that?

You are a Client and you started your brand. You don’t have a huge budget and don’t have anyone to invest their money in you. You invest your own money and you can’t overstep it in any way. Big respect for that! You have heard all dreadful stories about the advertising agencies and thousands of dollars for something that looks like your kid did it. That is why you decided to work on everything by yourself – to save your money. But that is not a good enough reason and your mistakes will cost you more than you planned.

You can’t do everything on your own and accomplish the best quality. To be that good, you need to be a Superhero, and still, you won’t have enough time. What you can do?

Instead of torture yourself or go to an expensive advertising agency, you can find a small design studio, also an entrepreneur like yourself. You can introduce your business and explain to them where you wanna be in a year or two. If you get each other, you will know it. You can grow together and they will follow your rhythm perfectly. If you don’t get each other, you will be aware of that too. It’s like a bad date.

So, do your homework and search for people like you – they are good at their job and they do it from the heart. Money is just a bonus for all the hard work.

The first Festival of Illustration in Serbia was organized by the Whole in One communications in partnership with the Belgrade Fortress, and CEBEF (Belgrade Festivals Center) and it took place from the 23rd until the 31st of May 2019.

In May 2019, we had a chance to be part of the first Ilustrofest exhibition of illustration in Belgrade, Serbia. For that occasion, we participate with several of our previous works – illustrations in packaging, City sketchbook project, and People project.

The exhibition was placed at Kalemegdan, in front of the “Cvijeta Zuzoric” gallery and it hosted 80 illustrators from all over the World. We were among them.

At the closing ceremony of the festival, on May 31st, “Momo Kapor” Fondacy awarded us with special recognition as the best illustrator of the Festival. It was our great pleasure to be one of the exhibition participants and get this wonderful recognition.

Do you love your job?

I know, it’s a very common question and the internet is full of articles about this issue… But, really, do you love what you do, or you are daydreaming about some beach during the working hours? You will be surprised by how many people does that.

Just to explain why I’m writing about this – I’ve been working for 18 years in various advertising agencies. As I started just a few days after I finish the Academy of Applied Arts, I was lucky to find a job right away. My plan was to work for 10 years, get as much experience as I can with different clients and industries. It’s ridiculous to have a plan and living in Serbia, so my 10-year plan becomes an 18-year plan. It was quite a journey, I can tell you. In the end, I found myself still loving the job but not the people. So, I ask myself what do I need to sacrifice – my patience and health or my job? There must be another way…

To be able to create and work every day, you need some proper environment. When I said environment, I don’t mean just an office, but also the people, creative process and time for creative incubation. I must admit, for the 18 years, I never had these last two. It became stressful and I needed to find where the stress was coming from?

I realize I’m working all the time but not creating anything worth that time. Even if I create something that I like, account dismiss it and it never comes to the client’s table. The pay was always fine, but there is something that you can’t pay with any money. Fulfillment and Satisfaction of creating something and enjoy it along the way.

A year ago, I quit my job at the advertising agency and started my own design studio. I’ve decided that if I’m going to love this job in many years to come, I need to find a different way to work and create. I need to be more satisfied not only with the results but with a process too. And I am.

So, once again – do you love your job? If you do – Great! Keep it and enjoy every moment of it. But if you don’t, you need to find your way out. No matter how much money you earn it will destroy you. I know you are the happiest person on Friday, but on Monday morning you are probably close to a heart attack. Don’t wait too long, because it can cost you your mental and physical health. If you are going to repeat to yourself “I CAN do it!” you better repeat it for something that makes you happy and accomplished in the end.