Project Proposal

Group 3:
Jackie San Fillipo, Sara Loshak, Erin Stroble, Jason Mahakian, Lindsey Bienick
September 26, 2010
Al Dente Pasta Proposal

What we understand about Al Dente:
Like Monique, Al Dente has a lot of character. She is closely tied to her French heritage that stresses the importance of culture and food. Her pasta is about bringing people together. It’s homemade, and local; not just to Ann Arbor but to America. She has a strong connection to Michigan; she values community as well as family and unity. Monique built the company up from the ground 30 years ago; it has been her life’s work and passion. In terms of design she is very tied to the checkerboard- it has been a part of the brand since the beginning. She wants a contemporary design. The pasta is famous for its texture, hence the “tender but firm” definition of Al Dente.

Problems we want to solve:
The bags are definitely recognizable, but not cohesive. The brand itself and the logo is not very strong or recognizable- Monique was using her bags as icons which shows that they are the most important factor at the moment. She has a lot of ideas, which is good but has lead to many different styles of bags; it is obvious that they were created at different times. We would like the logo to be less rigid so that it reflects the homemade nature of the pasta. We would like to change the typeface for the same reason. She wants to reach out to Michigan students and a broader audience.

How we plan to execute our ideas:
We want to above all create a strong and recognizable logo. We want to ensure the versatility of the logo by making sure it works in both high end and low-end market places, and will appeal to different types of people. While we do not want to change the style of the bag and label greatly, the information that is presented needs to be more unified. We plan to do this by presenting all information in the same way, for example placing the type of pasta at the center of the label, and keeping the hierarchy of information consistent. We plan to change the way the bag communicates the fact that the pasta cooks in 3 minutes, by making a new icon or not having one at all. We plan to explore different solutions such as placing the checkerboard on the bottom of the bag, which will also hide some of the crushing. We want to unify the color scheme a little more, keep a consistent color but change accent colors based on flavor.

Design ideas

Over the weekend we each did some sketches and drew up some ideas and here are the one we liked best. After discussing what we liked/didn't like about each, we are continuing to sketch some more for the next set of iterations.

Mind Mapping

Getting Started

Monday was our first day diving into the process of redesigning/re-branding the identity of Al Dente Pasta. We started as a class creating a mind map of thoughts/feelings/words that spurred from "Al Dente."

From there we, as a group, created a mini outline of our process:

1) Redesigning the Logo
- This involved finding a hierarchy in the logo itself:
a) "Al Dente" (the name)
b) "Pasta"
c) the checkerboard
- However we wish to find a way to integrate this as part of the design as a whole. This way the logo can function as a name label with or with the checkerboard. We see the board as currently standing alone as a separate entity, and in this case, failing as a design element.

- We are working to have the logo speak directly about the pasta itself. (To start this process, we created a mind map of "Pasta").

2) Defining the Contextual Hierarchy of the label:
a) Type of noodle
-flavor
b) Logo
c) "100% All-Natural"
d) 3-minute cooking blurb
e) Imagery
f) Net wt.
g) Kosher

These are the 2 main goals we hope to tackle first. I'll keep you updated when we have more! (Also to come, images and inspirations!)