Huashan Strawberry Package Design
A strawberry box designed for three feelings — care, awareness and excitement.
- Year
- c. 2020
- Reading
- 03 min
- Figures
- 12
Huashan, a local community in Anhui, grows distinctive red and white strawberries that customers were overlooking as ordinary berries. For a research project in the winter of Year 9, I redesigned the first encounter instead: a semi-translucent box with slide-out holders and minimal variety notes. It earned positive feedback from consumers and local farmers, and was showcased at the Huashan Innovation Exhibition.
- Role
- Research, packaging & logo design
- Disciplines
- Packaging Design
- Branding
- Field Research
- Cultural Design
- Tools
- Adobe Illustrator
During the winter of Year 9, I took on a research project to promote strawberries from Huashan, a local community in Anhui. After a week of intensive research the issue was clear: customers were overlooking the distinctive flavours and varieties of Huashan strawberries, seeing them as commonplace berries.
Delicate, unique, gradient
Huashan strawberries come in red and white varieties. Collected together, their colours fall into a gradual sequence — from white to red, and from red to white.
Organic, natural, fresh: every colour and tone is cultivated by caring farmers in the greenhouses and on the open ground.
Made with care, passion, love: seedlings are raised in nutrient bowls, and about ten days later, once rooted, they are cut from the mother plant.
Fig. 01Red and white Huashan strawberries
Fig. 02Open ground, with the greenhouses beyond
4
Huashan varieties described on the box
3
feelings designed for: care, awareness, excitement
Design the first encounter
Rather than make an infographic, I concentrated on the packaging. I put myself in the customer’s shoes and focused on the pivotal moment of their first encounter with the product.
Theme: product design and cultural embracement. Objective: a strawberry package that emotionally triggers the urge to purchase.
Three feelings
- 01
Care
The strawberry holders slide out from the side of the box, so opening it is a careful, deliberate act.
- 02
Awareness
The side of the box describes the four Huashan varieties in a minimal style, made to be taken in at a glance.
- 03
Excitement
The semi-translucent box offers only a glimpse of the different strawberries inside — never the full picture until it slides open.
Between minimal and maximal
I designed the package in Adobe Illustrator, testing layouts from minimal to maximal. I settled on a middle ground that kept a luxurious look without overloading it with information.
For the new logo I experimented with tones and colours, looking for a combination that carried both the premium quality of the strawberries and their range of colours.
Fig. 06Logo colour tests
Fig. 07Side panel in Illustrator
Fig. 08Panel layout in Illustrator
Care, awareness, excitement
I tapped into the emotions local farmers felt while cultivating these strawberries and set out to instil them in the hearts of customers.
The design earned positive feedback from both consumers and local farmers, and was eventually showcased at the Huashan Innovation Exhibition.
I came to realise that I could make an impact — the kind that brings smiles to people’s faces, yet remains subtle — encouraging me to “keep creating”.”
