Media Contact: Heather West, (612) 724-8760, heatherwest@earthlink.net

Compass Design, Minneapolis Creates New Milk Carton Designs for Kemps/Marigold Foods

Minneapolis (August 8, 2000) -Marigold Foods selected Minneapolis-based Compass Design to help them with a major packaging redesign of their gallon and half-gallon milk containers.

"This was a very important project for Kemps," said Julia Hemphill, partner/sales at Compass. "We were brought on board very early in the project and were involved in all aspects of the design exploration."

"To create a premium look and feel, we knew we wanted to move from a two to a four-color process for the label and package. This also gave us a lot more freedom to create visual references that would catch consumer's attention," explained Mitch Lindgren, Compass partner/designer.

The team's initial round of pencil concepts featured sketches of milk in a glass, milk splashing as it's being poured and more, all on backgrounds of fields with barely noticeable, grazing cows.

After approval by Kemps, several concepts were reviewed by consumer focus groups. "Since the package redesign was going be a total change from the way consumers are used to seeing milk containers, it was important to Kemps that they get as much consumer feedback as possible," said Lindgren.

Although excited about the use of color and additional images on the label, consumers had one common question: "Where is the cow?"

"Kemps has incredible equity in the cow image featured on many of its dairy products," said Tom Arthur, partner/designer at Compass. "So when consumers said they missed it, we were happy to work it back into our designs."

Rather than work with a temporary cow "stand-in," Compass asked the original Minneapolis illustrator of the Kemps cow, Leland Klanderman, to create an image that could be used throughout the entire package design process. Klanderman agreed, and the reworked designs, now featuring the beloved Kemps cow, were again presented to Kemps and consumer focus groups with favorable reviews.

With the label and package design approved, Compass moved on to its next challenge: how to extend the design across the full line of Kemps milk, including its popular Kemps Select product.

"Like many dairies, Kemps uses a color-coded system to identify its milks," said Arthur. "Red for whole milk, blue for two percent reduced fat, yellow for one percent reduced fat and pink for skim. We decided to keep that system for both lines, but use a green ribbon and cursive lettering to identify Kemps Select."

"These packages really pop off the shelf in a category that has not had much color in the past. We found it catches people off guard, and that's the response we were looking for."

The Kemps redesigned half-gallon milk containers have been available on grocery store shelves in Minnesota and Wisconsin since mid-July. Gallon containers followed a few weeks later.

Compass Design is a dynamic, Minneapolis-based design office specializing in comprehensive identity and consumer packaging programs for established and growing companies. With its exceptionally experienced and knowledgeable staff, Compass Design strives for integrity and accuracy in its cost-effective, award-winning strategic design solutions. For more information on Compass Design, please contact Julia Hemphill at (612) 339-1595.