Le Conserve della Nonna — Rebranding Concept
This project started in a supermarket. I picked up a jar of "Le Conserve della Nonna" and thought the product was genuinely excellent — quality ingredients, strong underlying concept — but the packaging was doing it a disservice on the shelf. I decided to redesign it as an unsolicited proposal and send it directly to the company.
The Challenge
Rebranding an existing product without a brief means working within invisible constraints. The brand had an established identity and a loyal customer base — the goal wasn't to reinvent it, but to modernize it enough to compete visually without losing the homemade, trustworthy feeling that made it appealing in the first place.
My Approach
I started with a competitive analysis — Mutti, Barilla, and smaller artisan brands — to understand where the visual language of the category was going. The redesign focused on three things: improving shelf legibility with a cleaner, more readable font; introducing a pattern system for the lid inspired by traditional fabric jar covers, which reinforced the homemade identity while adding visual distinctiveness across the product line; and proposing a mascot to create emotional connection and brand recognition over time.
The Outcome
I sent the project directly to the company as a speculative pitch. They didn't respond — which is a common outcome for unsolicited work. The project remains useful to me as an exercise in brand thinking within real-world constraints, and as a demonstration of how I approach visual problems I find interesting, even without a client asking me to.
