All-Bran Wrapper

All-Bran Wrapper

audience

The audience for the All-Bran bar in Canada is people who want to be healthier and more regular. All-Bran in general is a simple and easy way for people to increase their fibre intake, in accordance with Canada’s Food Guide. People who buy All-Bran bars are looking for a healthy snack that boosts fibre but still tastes good.

purpose

The All-Bran wrapper is designed to package individual All-Bran bars within a larger box of bars. The box comes with six All-Bran bars individually packaged so the bars can be taken with you if you are in a hurry or packed in a lunch. Individually wrapping the bars maintains the freshness of each bar. The wrapper also provides important information to the consumer after the wrapper has been removed from the box. The wrapper contains the name of the product, the Nutrition Facts and the ingredients, as well as contact information for questions and comments about the product. The wrapper is meant to hold the bar until opened, and then it is assumed that the wrapper will be discarded.

context

Since the All-Bran bar is intended as a cereal bar or a healthy snack, it is probable that the context for using the wrapper and therefore the bar is while on the go. The audience will use the wrapper and consume the product at work or school, or perhaps in transit to/from one of these locations. In general, it is difficult to estimate the lighting and distractions that will apply to the context, but it is safe to say that it will be used during meal and/or snack times, when the consumer is taking a break from daily activities. However, the bar can also be used in a hurry, while the consumer is participating in his or her busy day.

In terms of the initial context – appealing to consumers in the grocery store – the wrapper does not play as large a part as the outer box, since it will not be seen until after the box is opened. However, for consistency, the design of the wrapper imitates the design of the box.

typography

The All-Bran bar wrapper uses three main font faces: a serif font for warmth and familiarity, a script font to add sugar and imitate the Kellogg’s logo, and a sans serif face to make the nutritional information, ingredients and contact information a clean and simple look. The main text on the wrapper is completely in upper case to emphasize the product and maintain consistency with other All-Bran products. All-Bran is actually the second logo on the document. Another font used on the wrapper is the stamp in the top left corner. This stamp is a code of letters and numbers relating to the production and packaging of the bars. All bars in the box are coded the same, with a corresponding code stamped on the outer box.

colour

The overall colour of the document is a dark golden yellow, to represent the honey nut flavour of the All-Bran bar. The additional colours are brown, orange and red, each of which are warm colours. The combination of the dark gold colour with the brown creates an earthy look, symbolizing the natural ingredients in the bar, and providing a high resolution contrast. The red on the document stands out against the other colours, and draws the attention of the viewer to the important information provided: Kellogg’s Bars. The code stamped on the package is black, which indicates that the information contained in the code is not as important as the logos and other information. Similarly, the word “Cereal Bar” or “Barre de céréales" is small and black, fading into the background when paired with the bright red script font.

weight

The All-Bran logo is the heaviest information on the document, and as such is large and dark in colour. The weight of the logo causes it to stand out against the lighter background. The Kellogg’s is also heavy, using red surrounded by white to make it pop out from the background. Under the All-Bran logo, the “Honey Nut Flavour” tag is set up as a reverse weight font, with white letters on a slightly darker orange background. The use of the reverse font draws attention to the information and is different from any other information on the document.

The back of the wrapper uses more white space, a much lighter weight to convey more detailed information such as nutrition facts and ingredients. If the more detailed information had been printed on the gold background, it would have been more difficult to read and less effective as distinct information.

materials

The All-Bran bar wrapper is made of a thick foil paper and sealed together at each end and in the middle. The material protects the wrapper from light and water, while keeping the bar fresh at the same time. At each end of the wrapper, there is a notch to facilitate easy-tear opening.

usability

Overall, the All-Bran wrapper is well designed and highly usable. It keeps the All-Bran bar fresh and protected while imitating the design of the outer box to maintain consistency and familiarity with the product. The use of a foil material with easy-tear tabs makes the bar easy to open and the wrapper easy to discard. The code stamped in the upper left corner is actually a code from the date of production. The bar that was found in this particular wrapper was packaged on April 30th, 2007. The letters “PDA1” mean that the product is good for eight months after the date immediately before it. However, in order to determine this information, I called Kellogg’s and asked them. As a “best before” stamp, it is not very effective.