labels Sam&Oliver sauce company - sample label, bottle render soon

Previously on TheHotPepper.com
 
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 "Should I just start over?" 
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 "There has to be a point where you stop taking advice and roll with what you like."
 
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 "It's the pride of trying to do everything yourself..."
  
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"...if you have a vision you want to achieve, hiring an artist can be a great way to go..."
 
--------------------- 8< *snip*
 
So here's the product design that the marketing firm and I settled on after discussing our company vision and direction.  Aside from minor edits (I see a few even now) I wanted a product packaging that would appeal to a broad general population audience from young to mature, with a bold look that could be easily identified and used by back-yard-grillers to sandwich shops to restaurant tables without losing it's charm.
 
Sam&Oliver is committed to only using the best wholesome ingredients to create healthy and fun condiments for anyone who wants to enjoy them with their food creations, and as such the packaging should also reflect this ideal with a clean label.
 
Sample Label:
 
samandoliverlabel-v42_zpsd4a97b34.png

 
Bottle Render by the design firm:  Finished product will use black caps and a black tamper-evident shrink band:

(coming soon)
 
Here's the Brand:
 
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and
 
snologo2_zpscee79993.png

 
Colors used for the logo:
 
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So that's what I've been doing for the last few weeks.  Once this is finalized I can start my Kickstarter, and then look into production, then product liability insurance and trying to figure out how to actually sell and/or ship the stuff for a fair price.
 
Refrigerate is misspelled. ;)

Is it supposed to be white hot sauce dripping down? Or red hot sauce dripping up?? I didn't quite get that but glad you like it and good luck!
 
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Business cards...

The Hot Pepper said:
Refrigerate is misspelled. ;)

Is it supposed to be white hot sauce dripping down? Or red hot sauce dripping up?? I didn't quite get that but glad you like it and good luck!
 
No, it's not dripping at all, just the design.  The color will be different for each recipe, but the logo will stay basically the same for hot sauces.  the BBQ and Dressings will look slightly different (and different colors) which we already have a color pallet picked out.
 
Looks Good!  Nice clean look.  Glad things came together for you.
 
The wording seems redundant for natural/wholesome and delicious/flavorful, but maybe the meanings are different enough to warrant.
 
 
and, WOW!  How'd you manage to get those phone numbers?  ;)    :lol:
 
Kalitarios said:
 
So that's what I've been doing for the last few weeks.  Once this is finalized I can start my Kickstarter, and then look into production, then product liability insurance and trying to figure out how to actually sell and/or ship the stuff for a fair price.
Not sure if you're joking here?

If you haven't figured that stuff out, why would you do a kickstarter or even spend a penny designing a label?

Business plans are pretty important?
;)
 
Nice clean look and should look even better against a darker sauce once on the bottle.  I still don't understand the Cinder reference, but there are many things I don't understand  :P. I still think your company name should be on the label instead of the co-packers.  That way a customer knows your a local product - and local sells.
 
Scott's right about the business plan.  It's the first thing you should do.  It helps you gather your thoughts and really think about what you want to accomplish as a company and how you will achieve it.  If you have not started one then I would step back from all the other activities and get it finished. Then set up a meeting w/ your local SCORE office so they can review it.  You can do the same for your Kickstarter campaign.  Create a Kickstarter Plan and include an indepth list of every possible idea you have to drive traffic to your campaign.  It should include joining this group: Kickstarter Best Practices and Lessons Learned
 
Good luck.
 
Ken 
 
I was going to let you go with this but I will add a few points here, in case they help. Seems you haven't gone into any production yet.

1. Do you want to be called S&O or Sam & Oliver? I don't know what S&O is and it's not catchy. Okay, I do know if I look at the small print. But you have it as if you want people to call it S&O. You said it referenced dogs and you mentioned it to these brand people but where is that? No more? Kentucky Fried Chicken didn't become KFC overnight. People called it KFC for years and years, and they decided to shorten it... something like 40 years later. Everyone knew what it stood for. And they still use the colonel's face. You have S&O as the prominent brand. No dog theme. No history of using the long name. I'd go with Sam & Oliver as the brand. And mention the dogs somewhere! Unless you want to be called S&O and not have it mean anything. Then you are good.
 
2. Besides that, S&O is not consistent. You are using lowercase so it's s&o. But in your main name it's Sam&Oliver. So in the letters, the sauce splash is over a lowercase o. In the full name it's over an uppercase O. For brand consistency, use uppercase in the letters, or lowercase in the full name so they match. And when you write it as text put spaces in the words. "We at Sam & Oliver Sauce," yes. "We at Sam&Oliver Sauce..." only looks good in the brand image. Here it looks like spaces are missing. But like I said, I'd still ditch the S&O.
 
3. This has a bit of a corporate look to it. The letters (S&O), the teardrop shape, splash. More like a paint or ink company. Or even an oil company/gas station logo. Still don't get the drips. The red drips in reverse can even look a little B horror movieish. That combo does not say food or sauce to me.
 
4. Lastly, LDHS is 100% correct! If I saw that you had a kickstarter, and then read your post, I would NOT contribute. No one wants to give money to someone that is just winging it, and has no idea of what their business plan is! That's not fair to the contributors. You NEED to lay that out IN the kickstarter. If you don't know what you are doing (yet), don't ask people for money.
 
Good luck man. Get that business plan together. Then you'll know if this is even possible!
 
If I can put it in simpler terms... this label does not excite me. In the same way the A1 sauce label does not excite me. Hot sauce should be exciting. Not talking flames or anything. Simple is still good. But the passion is not coming through.
 
I think I could get into the dippy stuff if it looked like the white was the drips, not the red.  
 
After reading the comments re S&O vs Sam&Olivers, I think they're spot on.  It looks like S&O is your company name and logo...but then there's Sam& Oliver on the label and in the text....but not on the business cards?  
 
Choose one, (I'd suggest Sam&Oliver) and put it on EVERYTHING!!!!!  One Name, blanket coverage=brand recognition.  Mixing up S&O with Sam&Oliver will create confusion.  When you get Reaaaly big for years (like KFC) then look as abbreviating.  
 
Now, there are brands that are initials only (we have "S & W" canned vegetables up here in the NW, but I have no idea what S & W stands for, it's always been S & W, and the address on their cans is "S & W Foods...")  It's not mixing up initials and names. 
 
Maybe you should send a link to your graphics people so they can read these comments first hand, better to understand than you trying to explain why you want something changed on the label.  Doesn't mean anyone has to listen to them, they're just opinions..... :cool:
 
I have a business plan already...

'Sam&Oliver sauce company' is the brand name. The S&O drop is simply a logo on bottles.

Oddly enough, A1 came up as a model in the brainstorm process, amoung others.

Those aren't drips under the recipe on the bottle. It's simply just a design, which will change color depending on the recipe. Just color against the white on the front panel for a striking and visual difference between recipes.

Sam&Oliver is now a single word. A food sauce company, not just a hot sauce company. I didnt want to just identify my brand to just one type of sauce.

I love the way the ampersand brings the 3 and 6 letter words and mashes them up with a singular, unified name. The sauce drops coming out of it are a bit of a conversation piece. It's had some positive reviews and a few chuckles so far. I really like it. A bit of my comical side coming through and they (designers) picked up on that in the interview.

Edit: Oh, the business card designs are from a previous revision. I didnt have. Render (or the bottle render) done yet for the last one i posted in the OP it was just as a reference point
 
Kalitarios said:
'Sam&Oliver sauce company' is the brand name. The S&O drop is simply a logo on bottles.
 
Sorry but this doesn't make any sense. Why is the "logo" different from the brand? Take Lucky Dog Hot Sauce for example. If he put LDHS on his bottles as the logo, we would assume that is the brand, NOT Lucky Dog. We would also assume that is what he wanted to be known as. If Sam & Oliver (Sam&Oliver) is the brand... make it the brand! Don't confuse people.

NBC is a brand.
National Broadcasting Company is a company.
They branded one.

Kalitarios said:
Those aren't drips under the recipe on the bottle. It's simply just a design, which will change color depending on the recipe. Just color against the white on the front panel for a striking and visual difference between recipes.
 
You can call it a design, and not drips, but the "design" looks like drips. You can say a circle is not the sun but if people see it as the sun, you should consider their point of view, for better or worse. It will help you develop the label.
 
If someone googles S&O Sauce Company, what will they find?  Whatever is front-and-center on your label is what people will google.  They'll type (S&O Cinder Sauce), will that hit to your website?  Or will you link 2 websites, one S&O and one Sam&Oliver's, to the same webstore. 
 
If Sam&Oliver is your business name, brand name, identity...THAT is what needs to be front and center on your label!!!!  Otherwise, get rid of all references to Sammy and Ollie on all marketing, labels, and promo materials and go with S&O.   
 
I really feel like you are gonna kill it with 2 different names.  Pick one and run with it.  Remember......customers are generally ...(uuuhhhmm....trying not to be too harsh here, but...) ....idiots.  Scott gets customers asking if LD hot sauce is supposed to be put on dog food.  WTF???  :crazy:  Don't make it more confusing for the public.  You will be "explaining" your logo/brand 100's of times a day at every farmers market, thousands of times a day when you go to a festival.....overandoverandoverandoverandoverandoverandoverandover (where's the infinity smiley  :lol: )
 
Don't waste valuable face-time with customers talking about why you named your sauce company after a couple of dogs.  Make it simple, get rid of the emotions attached to Sam & Ollie (even though we know you LOVE them to pieces), It just doesn't seem to be working to integrate the dogs into your total brand package. 
 
This is a Business and you are investing a LOT of time and money into it.  Don't shoot yourself in the foot by screwing up the overall brand with 2 logos, 2 names, 2 designs..... 
 
We're all here commenting trying to help.  I think everyone likes the new clean look, colors work, Drips or no drips, maybe that could be reworked for some other kind of delineation in the panel so it doesn't look so drippy but wavy~~~(whatever, that's a minor detail compared to having 2 names) .....but the 2 names is really gonna be a confusion issue and I honestly think you will have major issues with it.
 
Honestly, sincerely trying to help.  Again, just an opinion....
SL
 
Kalitarios said:
Sam&Oliver is now a single word.
An example of what I meant with the spacing.
 
Sam & Oliver (as text)
Sam&Oliver (as brand graphic)
 
Take Lea & Perrins for example. It only runs together as a graphic.
 
You're not making it "one word" as you say... but with logos, they look better more condensed. But as text, look funny if you're going to run it all together like that.
 
leaandperrins.jpg
 
My understanding of a logo and brand are they are two different elements.  A logo is a recognizable design that people can easily recall.  A brand is the experience they get or come to expect.  My brand is high quality small-batch food sauces that not only taste good but are healthy to boot.  My Company name is Sam&Oliver.  My Logo is the S&O sauce drop.
 
I understand that there will be mistakes made and tweaks made to the labels, and I can't get it 100% right right out of the gate.  I get it.
 
I'm also not seeking Wal-Mart shelf space or expecting to change the face of food sauce and how people enjoy it...  My business plan is to have 4 products produced within 24 month, at most, starting with Cinder and Pexberry (strawberry preserve - brainstrain... if I can ever find someone who actually grows brainstrains AND can provide the in mash form in bulk).
 
I am not a business major.  I'm not a marketing major, I'm someone who loves to share their creations and was encouraged to try and sell my sauces.  I started in january of 2013 on my own and as of june 2014, I still have no product I can legally sell yet.  I tried and was shot down with my designs I attempted to do myself, so I went and paid several artists, took concept designs and then interviewed and hired someone who is the director of a marketing agency to help me develop not only a logo, but a brand, usage, color palates, literature, and more.
 
Sam and Oliver (The dogs) can be a cute backstory... on the website.  samandoliver.com.  I simply don't have the room on the label to get into all of that. Instead I chose to express my vision.
 
About the copacker: I looked around a supermarket for other local connecticut products and every single one of them had the copacker on the bottle.  I Believe a responsible party for production and location must be named on the packaging.
 
I'll tackle logistics, website and things like liability insurance when it comes.  I have relatives who sell and deal with liability insurance for a living, so I would trust their judgement with that.
 
My first batch of sauce (be it 1800 or 3600 bottles) will be tricky.  I understand all that.  I understand I might completely change my label again.  I love the design I have now.  I thought it was very creative and distinct.  The words I chose for the recipe name Cinder not only roll off the tongue well, but (right now) there aren't any foods associated with it, so it will be unique and eventually associated with my product (fingers crossed, maybe one day!)
 
Each day I look at the logo and the other developed tools I have (I didn't post them all) and I do find changes here and there, believe me I tweak it all the time, and will send him the revision notes, but I need to start making moves here towards production so I at least have something to sell.  Not trying to simply rush to market, but after 18 months I need to start moving forward at some point here.

Edit: I see what you mean about Lee & Perrins.  I'll go through some of the revision notes we had when it was 2 words and compare.
 
Regarding "pexberry" - if you are planning on making a sauce but there's no source for the ingredient you're setting yourself up for failure.

As for logistics (storage, movement of product, copacker) if you don't have an angle on those things there's no point making a logo. If you can't make or transport the sauce you don't have sauce.

Regarding the listing of copacker vs your busines address, "believe" isn't good enough. Talk to your process authority (or the copacker) - they will tell you with great certainly what the law states. This isn't a trivial thing - it's the difference between a batch getting released for sale and a batch getting relabeled.

As for the logo, I understand it's frustrating to hear something you paid for isn't working. It took us months to design, revise and finalize my labels. And it was frustrating as hell to hear that a concept wasn't working when I just wanted to make sauce. But the feedback was sound and back to the drawing board I went.

The issue I'm having with your label is that your passion and your humor and your whimsical description doesn't match the label in the slightest. The drippy thing looks like the cover of a slasher movie and I don't find it stylistic, I find it distracting. And be prepared to have the same conversation with 1000s of market customers:
"Are you Sam or Oliver?"
they're my dogs
"Oh - why aren't there dogs on the label?"
uh...they're on the website. It's quite whimsical really
"How hot is it? It says spicy hot. Is that like a medium or..."
it's hot ma'am
"So why didn't you just say that on the label?"
uh.....
"Is your company "S&O's" or "Sam&Olivers"?"
well, it's both, see, because I...
"Why aren't there spaces in the name?"
was going for a stylistic appearance and...

Like I said - I feel your pain. But just because something's painful doesn't make it ok to rush it.

These labels aren't fun, not do they convey anything about the product or company. Your design firm came up with a random graphic and a pseudo-sexual ampersand and called it a day? Nothing about the dogs? Everyone loves pugs - How did they not incorporate that anywhere? Did they ask you who Sam & Oliver were? This part baffles me

This is whimsical:
http://www.craftstylish.com/assets/uploads/posts/41459/pugs_lg.jpg

Not saying to do that but with pugs the opportunity for whimsical is high indeed. Pugs are hysterical. People laugh just looking at them. And you have a company named after 2 pugs with none pugs on the label. :doh:

As for "brand" vs "name", I'm not sure where you're coming from there. You may be confusing "brand" vs "logo". My brand is Lucky Dog Hot Sauce. My branding (logo) is a dog & a horseshoe. This is why your label is confusing. You've got two brands and no logo (unless your logo is paint spilling)

I'm not feeling it - I'd make them go back to the drawing board. That's the nice part about paying them - there's no emotional investment when you go back to them to ask for a redesign.

This is all intended as constructive. I'm no artist nor designer but I have a pretty good eye for design and I just don't get this label, regardless of the color of the drippy part.

The points made by THP & SL were sound. I know you don't want to hear it but they're not wrong with their feedback.

Good luck.
 
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