Further Colour Research and Development

I have now started to develop the imagery for the front of the Masala packaging designs. I asked peers for feedback on which they preferred out of the newer designs which use imagery of the actual plants that the ingredients in the masala come from.

The plants/ingredients used for the imagery on the Garam Masala design are piper nigrum (where black pepper seeds come from), coriander plant and a nutmeg plant.

Peer feedback suggested that the design without the circle worked best, although 40% of the people that I asked preferred the circle. One comment mentioned that I could combine the two as in use the circle within the background but keep the extended imagery outside of the circle, peers seemed to like this idea.

Extended imagery design

Imagery within circle design

Below shows the Garam Masala imagery developed following the peer feedback; combining the extended imagery with the circle. I feel that this works really well in creating an interesting contrast and overall classy design. Peers mentioned that this worked best as well, I will now create similar imagery for the other two masalas that I will be re-branding.

In order to create similar designs for the other two masala packaging, I gathered further colour psychology research relating to Indian culture and the specific masalas, the same way I did for the Garam Masala.

Useful Eastern/Indian colour psychology websites:
https://zevendesign.com/color-association/
https://www.sensationalcolor.com/symbolic-colors-india/

Butter Chicken colour research:

Moti Mahal Delux is a global chain of restaurants with over 150 franchises in India and around the world. After the partition of India in 1947, the first Moti Mahal in Delhi founded by Kundan Lal Jaggi, Thakur Dass Maggu & Kundan Lal Gujral, was one of the first restaurants to introduce the Punjabi cuisine to the rest of the world.

India became independent, the colour relating to independence in Eastern culture is purple; 'it is associated with wisdom, dignity and independence'

The plants/ingredients used for the imagery on the Butter Chicken design are Cardamom Amomum, turmeric plants and a red chilli plant.

Chana Masala colour research:

Green has been chosen as the main colour for the Chana masala for several reasons, firstly because it is a vegetarian dish so it'll be easy to spot for vegetarians looking for masalas, as veggie advertising and design uses a lot of green so they're familiar with it. Furthermore, In Indian culture, green represents harvest and nature, as it does in many others cultures too.

The plants/ingredients used for the imagery on the Chana Masala design are fenugreek leaves, Asafoetida plant and a mustard plant.

Although, I'm not really keen on the green as the plants are already green, it looks a little bit odd. I experimented with the colours orange and blue which relate to the Indian flag;

I think the blue works really well aesthetically out of the 3, it also works well alongside the other two designs which are red and purple. I will gather some further research on blue and what it means in Indian culture and colour psychology relating to blue in order to see if it has any other deeper links to Chana Masala.