Nightshade Kit of Parts
The client is a company that wants to provide an alternative to smoking.
They want to design a product that will help a rebellious target audience switch to Nicotine gum as opposed to cigarettes which tend to cause long term health issues like cancer. The target audience are blue-collar workers, who use smoking as a social or de-stressing outlet and are more resistant to conventions in society (white-collar brands for example), therefore being more rebellious. The brand is based on the origin and birth of teenage rebellion. The 1950s were a pivotal decade in history where Hollywood began to promote and empathise with the angst of the teenager and the outlaw which made this idea more commonplace in a strict society. Iconic men such as James Dean and Marlon Brando were the catalysts of this newfound rebellion in the youth of the 1950s. Not only is this concept familiar and appealing to the target audience, it additionally evokes nostalgia for those that have been smoking cigarettes, influenced by this period, since their teens (70s - 90s).
The brand name, ‘Nightshade’, is a reference to the family of plants that Nicotine is extracted from. It also has deadly connotations with the association with poisons and tends to evoke more dangerous imagery. The brand mark itself is a bastardised version of Helvetica (a typeface made in the 1950s) which is timeless. This specific typeface has spurs added which gives a more dangerous impression. The treatment has been influenced by cigarette brands from the 1950s, using a gold stroke and drop shadow to mimic the time.