The design team here at KMI were first asked to come up with concepts for a women's Fish range, called Angel Fish, over two years ago. At the time these were very rough'n'ready ideas to show senior buyers at Boots and the senior managers here including Will King and Andy Hill what products could look like.
I had designed the original Fish Unisexy range that was first sold in Boots in 2001, I was also responsible for the refresh when the range re-foccussed on the men's market plus other 'tweaks' so when Boots said "yes please" to Angel Fish we felt the time had come for a some outside inspiration...
When you run an internal design team, it sometimes feels like failure to use an outside agency. However an agency is not held back by what 'I know we can't do', has no preconceptions only (hopefully) great ideas and new angles i.e. fresh thinking! Plus when you're really busy producing essential artworks it feels very empowering to just give a project to someone else and wait to be shown some excellent 'stuff' – though obviously it is never quite as simple as that. You have to select the right agency, you have to give them a clear and concise brief, you must be available to answer questions and queries as they arise from the agency and you must be able to give good feedback so that the right ideas can be developed. And you must be prepared to pay a realistic sum of money for their services!
We had worked with Bulletproof (based in Covent Garden, London) previously on a couple of projects. Their free-thinking had impressed us previously so we met with Melissa and Nick, had a laugh and a nice cup of tea, briefed them, and then waited. We were not disappointed. There were some great concepts and ideas but we settled on one and this was refined and worked-up into a finished Angel Fish logo (one of which can be seen below) plus a secondary 'fallen Angel' logo (also shown below). They also came up with some packaging layouts, 'benefit' icons for each product and even had some thoughts on the product names.
At that stage we felt that Bulletproof had given us the logos and mental stimulation to finish the job in-house. I designed and laid-out artworks for each pack and I wrote the text for the front and rears. In conjunction with Andy and the Production Team this text was checked, amended and finalised. Production also worked with the packaging manufacturers providing samples of bottles, plastics, tints etc so we could ensure the entire range worked together. And I have not even talked about the years of work that Production Team and Fish Hairdressing put into getting the formulations just right!
The result is a funky looking range of styling and hair-care products for women that has fantastic formulations and a great on-shelf presence. The Angel Fish range is available at major Boots stores throughout the UK, as well as online from boots.com and shave.com.
