East Rock wanted to tell the story of their heritage and sustainable practices while appealing to local customers and the Asian export market, who love the quality and freshness of New Zealand fish.
We had the added challenge of designing efficient packaging for a busy factory environment – helping meet the company’s guarantee of having their product on shelves within 24 hours of the fish being caught.
A key point of difference is the product’s ocean-to-plate transparency, with every fish traceable to the boat and location it was caught. To speak to a culturally diverse market, we drew inspiration from Asian art forms such as Gyotaku where a real fish is layered with ink and a print is taken from the skin.
We produced a custom sleeve to show as much of the product as possible. This fits East Rock’s commitment to transparency, using 50% less material in line with their value of sustainability.
Fish packers have a ‘dry hand’ and a ‘wet hand’, so the design allows them to use a single hand to pop the sleeve open and quickly slide it over the product.
Black and white photos, fishing coordinates and encyclopaedic illustrations of each boat reflect the expertise that comes with almost 100 years of fishing New Zealand’s east coast.
