True English Tea (TET)

A brand and packaging design project for a range of British teas. A modern pack design with a nostalgic British twist, comes together in a tasteful tea range - tea anyone?

The TET packaging design project was both fun and challenging, and there were many reasons why. Firstly, we needed to understand what it means to be a true English tea, after all, tea isn’t grown in England, or anywhere near England for that matter, in the same way that Yorkshire tea isn’t grown in Yorkshire, so why do people have an affinity with English or even British teas, what does that mean?

Interestingly though, there is a long history of British teas, yes it is mostly grown in places like Asia and Africa, but the Britishness of tea stretches back a long way, stemming from the times of colonial Britain.

Tea is deeply intertwined with British culture and history, symbolising tradition, social connection, and national identity. Although tea originated in China, it was introduced to Britain in the mid-17th century. Initially, tea was a luxury item enjoyed by the aristocracy, but over time, it permeated all levels of society, becoming a quintessential British beverage. What we realised though, is tea is so engrained into Britishness, that it traverses all classes, and has become the first place people turn to when they feel they need to pause and relax, chat to friends and to find a kind of peace.

The direction we took for the brand was to examine what other elements we could bring into the packaging that does the same thing, like he moment when flying back to the UK from faraway places, the looking down and seeing the beautiful rolling hills of the British landscape, and what that means, and then the UnionJack, a symbol that has a varied past, but that is so associated to history. We decided that although we wanted to use the union jack, we didn’t want to make the packaging feel clichéd and nationalistic, it needed to be enough to lean into nostalgia, while feeling modern and fresh. The fonts we used are based on Johnston Sans, a very British font used on the London Underground

The end result bridges a beautiful nostalgic pack, with feelings of modernity and fresh design.

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