Marée
A range of tins designed to be kept after the fish is gone — each colourway a different tide.
The brief
Marée is an imagined coastal cannery reviving traditional Atlantic preserves. The range needed to feel collectable and generous, not nostalgic.
The challenge
Tinned fish packaging is a crowded genre of vintage pastiche. The aim was something with the same warmth, drawn with a contemporary hand.
Creative approach
- A single pattern of interlocking waves and scales runs across the whole range, recoloured per product so the shelf reads as one tide.
- Fish are drawn as simple cut shapes — readable from across a shop — with a tiny drawn detail you only see up close.
- The wordmark is an italic serif that rolls like a wave; product names are set in a sturdy grotesk for clarity.
One tide, five colours.
The pattern is a single tile of waves that become scales as they overlap. Recoloured per product, it ties the range together on a shelf.
A drawing you only notice up close.
- Fish are cut shapes first, readable from across a shop.
- Fine line details reward the second look on a kitchen shelf.
- Two spot colours per tin keep print costs honest.
Outcome
Five tin labels, a salt pouch and a pattern library. The tins are designed to be reused as pencil pots, so the inside lid carries a small illustrated tide table.
Something like this, for you?
I take on a few projects at a time. Tell me what you’re making and when.