Great Wrap

Great Wrap needed to be refreshed and repositioned in the aspirational sector, moving away from the eco/reusable market space. As a company, Great Wrap is always seeking to improve and is never satisfied with just good enough. At AFOM, we have succinctly distilled the brand essence into "Greater than good" and this became our underlying design ethos for Great Wrap. We aim to challenge the market by reimagining what a ‘green’ or environmentally-conscious brand can be, while embodying the vision and essence of Great Wrap as an optimistic, confident, curious and authentic brand.

Essentially, our design strategy repositions Great Wrap as attainable luxury wrapped in approachable science. In a heavily saturated market, our solution for Great Wrap sets the company apart from its competitors in the eco space with a bright colour palette, bold typography matched with an approachable and playful art direction and a suite of illustrations that humanises the tech-led brand.

An unapologetically strong logotype is matched with an editorial-style approach to imagery and typography. The bold logotype acts like a masthead of a magazine or newspaper, framing the content and providing impact in an engaging humanistic presence; this is paired with clear mission statements and scientifically-led copywriting and art direction to position the brand as a world-leading material science company. Grounding this is a secondary brand mark inspired by the product's end of life — a worm-inspired mark that also spells GW and cleverly mimics the unrolling experience, providing warmth, approachability and a humanistic quality to the brand. Our brand strategy and design for Great Wrap reimagined the brand as more than a cling wrap manufacturer, but a material science company without alienating their current customers. In this new direction, Great Wrap is confident, grown-up and serious about their mission, but still loves to have fun.

Good design is defined by being understandable, innovative, aesthetic, honest, long-lasting and environmentally-friendly. These elements form the backbone of Great Wrap's brand identity and come together to build a holistic and positive user experience, creating a beautiful and sustainable brand that is accessible for all. Great Wrap is arguably one of the most functional items in the kitchen, preventing food waste with a product that’s made from food waste. We underwent rigorous brand strategy in our intensive workshop—defining their values, copywriting, tone-of-voice, positioning them as leaders within the cling wrap market.

We also crafted their new brand positioning statement, 'Greater than Good'. The engaging monogram represents not only the worm in its role in composting, but unrolling of the wrap as well as the GW. We struck a balance between this organic motif with an editorial and brand san-serif logotype and typographic system. The sustainability messaging backed by science is weaved into the brand identity, creating awareness in a factually playful way, engaging customers from a wide age group to switch to sustainable cling wrap. We designed a robust website that's customer-focused, telling the story and science behind Great Wrap.

Visually-led by our compelling art direction to appeal to the visually savvy market, we were conscious about avoiding any greenwashing visual identifiers while striking the balance between information and play. Our suite of bespoke illustrated stickers help to call out the USPs in a playful manner and also double-up as educational talking points. To future-proof the brand and its applications, we created a solid brand guide that showcases the extent of the brand's rich toolkit. We hope to set a benchmark for creative, out-of-the-box thinking with our design solution that breaks away from industry norms and challenges how sustainability is perceived.

From the onset, the design challenge was to break Great Wrap out of the mold that found the brand sitting too comfortably amongst other brands in the eco/reusable market with the same tired green eco vibe. Unlike others, Great Wrap’s product is made food waste and compostable biopolymers and not from a mix of PLA + PBAT, which usually require intensive agriculture. Made in their solar-powered manufacturing plant in Tullamarine, Great Wrap not only creates jobs for Victorians, their product is also certified home compostable. While the brand is green, we believe that a ‘green’ product doesn’t have to adhere to the green stereotype.

As consumers are growing increasingly visual savvy, we wanted to position Great Wrap in a compelling way by avoiding any green visual tropes to help differentiate Great Wrap from its competitors. Granted Great Wrap is an innovative product, what it needed was an equally innovative design solution that helps its customers navigate in the sea of eco-conscious brands—and this is where AFOM comes in to challenge old ways of seeing. Our approach to the challenge was to borrow visual cues from our everyday—food items wrapped with Great Wrap—photographed in a distinctive close-up flash aesthetic to further capture the intimacy and candidness. Paired with a playful take on the dispensers and the pared-back bold brand identity, the brand photography and art direction elevated the brand to be ahead of the curve.

As consumers are looking for more than just a brand that’s environmentally-conscious, they need to stand behind a brand with a product that actually works—and our design strategy for Great Wrap communicates that and more. Heavy science is wrapped up in attainable luxury and approachability. Consumers can now easily make the switch to sustainable, compostable cling wrap without compromising on quality and functionality.

Our brand strategy and art direction were centred around brand co-owners Julia and Jordy who brought us great insight into the company culture, values, and mission. Our curiosity and creativity took their inspiring idea and ran with it—blossoming their mission into a brand identity they were proud to stand behind. With our robust design strategy and creative process, we reframed Great Wrap as a leader in the material sciences world; and hero the co-owners as incredible trailblazers: friendly and ethical Victorian business operators doing great things both locally and now internationally. Great Wrap is the epitome of Circular Economy in practice.

Their solar powered Tullamarine manufacturing plant repurposes food waste into a certified home compostable product. In the compost, the wrap breaks down into carbon and water, enriching and regenerating the soil. Each wrap dispenser is made from 33 recycled plastic bottles. A sustainable future doesn't have to compromise on quality, form, function or aesthetics. As consumers become increasingly visually savvy, we wanted to show other environmentally-conscious businesses that they can retire the stereotypical green brand language, and demonstrate that eco-brands can be bold and communicate their environmental differentiators in a fresh manner. In looking at more broad-reaching approach with mass appeal, we also grow the market to include non eco-focussed audiences.

As brand custodians, it's our role to excel such expectations and high standards by creating innovative design solutions that are informed by research, the user and their needs. We believe that our work for Great Wrap successfully pivoted the brand and created a new benchmark for good design in Australia. Investing in professional design not only creates a solid partnership between client and studio, it ensures that every challenge is met with a solution that exceeds expectations, communicates a strong brand message while establishing longevity and value.

Great Wrap's mission is to end our reliance on petroleum-based plastic. Made from landfill-bound food waste, the cling wrap is fully home compostable, breaking down in under 180 days. In the compost, the cling wrap breaks down into carbon and water—leaving no nasties behind, further enriching and regenerating the soil, encouraging biodiversity. Furthermore, each dispenser that houses the cling wrap is made from 33 recycled plastic bottles. Made in Tullamarine, Victoria in their solar-powered manufacturing plant, Great Wrap creates jobs for local Victorians. The design of the product is only half of the answer to a world that's seeking a more sustainable future, the other half is answered by the design strategy and identity that sets the brand and product apart from its competitors—locally and internationally.

At AFOM, we strive to ensure we create engaging solutions that are viable to equip our clients with the tools they need to create with confidence and autonomy. The design of the product—from its patented formula to the dispensers are groundbreaking, but without a compelling brand strategy and identity to drive it, the product may not reach its intended consumers and a greater audience, or its fullest potential. Partnering with a design practice like AFOM has further solidified the brand as a new benchmark in circular design with a future-proof brand strategy and identity toolkit. In and of itself, Great Wrap is reframing the conversation on what an environmentally-conscious brand looks like and sound like and hopefully inspire other businesses to reach even greater heights.