Hi Folks
I have been using a generic label for my honey for quite a while and I thought it was about time to design my own. The label that I?m using is quite boring and is used by many hobby beekeepers to satisfy food labelling requirements. I know of a local beekeeper who gets his labels professionally printed. They are glossy, well designed and really do look quite good. I do however, have a couple of issues with this label. The first one is the price he pays for them. I consider them to be quite expensive for what they are. This expense either has to be worn by the beekeeper or passed onto the customer. (Or a combination of both) The other issue that I have is that this label is just another good looking label. It contains all the bells and whistles that are required and it does have an impressive appearance. In other words, it fits in well with what people expect to see on a supermarket shelf. I want something a little different and I was wondering if you could help me with the design. Here is a few of my requirements:
1) I want the label to appear as though it is homemade. Obviously all the food labelling requirements such as nutritional information, packaging dates or batch numbers, beekeepers name and address etc, etc will form the basis of the written material but I would like the label to be simple and uncomplicated. When people pick up a jar of my honey and look at the label I would like them to think that this guy is just a small, hobby beekeeper who produces a bit of surplus honey for sale.
2) I don?t want to use coloured inks at all in the design. Everything has to be printed in black.
3) I want the labels to be rectangular and be printed on a low sheen Kraft brown label. (The colour of a brown paper bag)
What I?m trying to say is that the label I want for my honey should be earthy and uninspiring. If you guys can help me get to that point, I would be grateful.
My first request is for a picture of a bee. I would like to take that picture and transform it into a black and white image to include on the label. Do any of you have a photo that I could use? I?m sure that there are some talented people out there who have taken some wonderful shots of bees being bees. If you do have a pic that you have taken that may be suitable for that part of the label, could you post it here so that we can all have a look at it. My eldest daughter is a part time photographer and web page designer so I can get her involved as well. She is very good at manipulating images, changing backgrounds etc. I?m sure that she would love to help out. I reckon she will be out in the garden with her camera as soon as I talk to her about this project. I?m hoping that some of the members out there can help me.
Cheers
Les