`Crisis Inspires New Packaging for Greek Olive Oil - Olive Oil Times

Crisis Inspires New Packaging for Greek Olive Oil

By Marissa Tejada
Jul. 15, 2013 10:32 UTC

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Greek olive oil pack­ag­ing is tak­ing on new cre­ative designs. So much so that the Greek Graphic Design & Illustration Awards (EVGE) founded a brand new award cat­e­gory to honor the country’s graphic design­ers cre­at­ing them.

According to Kathimerini, Greece’s major daily news­pa­per, Greek olive oil exports were up 24 per­cent in Germany and 67.5 per­cent in China. To make it in these mar­kets and beyond, Greek com­pa­nies are tak­ing a closer look at their pack­ag­ing and turn­ing to design firms to help them mar­ket their prod­ucts with suc­cess.

In this time of cri­sis, Greeks need more income and more cash in hand. To do that they are look­ing to export. They are real­iz­ing that they need new visual iden­ti­ties that will keep their prod­ucts stocked in for­eign super­mar­kets and high-end gas­tro­nomic out­lets,” Dimitri Fakinos told Olive Oil Times. Fakinos is the head of +design and the direc­tor of the annual AVGE awards. There is a belief among Greek olive oil pro­duc­ers that their prod­uct pack­ag­ing needs to a new look to make it abroad. In many cases they are approach­ing their brand­ing for the first time.”

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Demetrios Fakinos

Fakinos says Greek design­ers have a unique chal­lenge when pre­sent­ing ideas to their clients. Overall, their pack­ag­ing con­cepts need to con­vey that Greek olive oil is a prod­uct defined by purity and lux­ury.

During the annual awards held in Athens recently, graphic designer Katerina Xenou won the first prize for the design of Eleones Messinias extra vir­gin olive oil. Merit awards were given to Mousegraphics design­ers for St. Olive and Timion and G Design Studio for Oloveoil.

In May, two Greek com­pa­nies, Moria Elea and Five, took the top hon­ors for pack­age design at the New York International Olive Oil Competition.

Packaging is more than a way to trans­port and store prod­ucts. When we design pack­ag­ing for Greek olive oil we are adding another level of value to an already pre­cious prod­uct, one that is impor­tant to our cul­ture and even more so due to the cur­rent cri­sis,” said Fakinos.



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