As part of a visit to Hillfarm Oils last Summer, Year 8 pupils at Framlingham College were offered the amazing opportunity to design a new bottle lid.

Hillfarm Oil fans will know that they are constantly changing their bottle lids. Each design reflects their values and says something about who they are. The bee lids signify their commitment to looking after bees, while the Union Jack lids demonstrate their pride in being 100% British. These particular lids were to represent their commitment to educating local young people and inspiring the next generation of farmers, food producers and businessmen and women.

The brief for the Year 8 pupils was that the design needed to represent all that they had learnt on their visit to Hillfarm. The tour included a talk on farming, how oil is extracted, filtered, bottled, labelled and boxed and they also took part in a tasting session.

To kick off the design competition, the pupils were shown some previous lid designs and given pointers as to which designs would work and which wouldn’t. The lids are very small and therefore only four colours can be used, including the black or white of the background. Detailed or complicated designs, therefore, would be out of the question. The pupils had to consider the context of what they were selling, think about which colours would stand out, which typeface, whether it should be one image or a small pattern.

Consequently the designs received back were full of colour and imagination. The whole design team looked at each one individually to create a short list of the ones that would work best on the shelf while conveying the Hillfarm message.

“The key thing with all the shortlisted designs was that they had an individual graphic image which typified the product and Hillfarm’s healthy eating message,” said Hillfarm’s designer.

Eventually they agreed on four designs from Izzy, Wilf and Cee pictured below. These were taken back to the studio and scanned and then transferred from images to artwork ready for printing. Look out for the designs on the shelves!

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