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HERSHEY'S KISSES SODA
Line Extension
Weird combos. This project challenged me to design a line extension for a famous brand with a new and unexpected product. As it would turn out, I got the peculiar combo of Hershey’s Soda.
Ultimately I chose to specify that further, narrowing down the line to be called Hershey Kisses Soda. This decision came about when I noticed in my research that the Hershey’s Chocolate brand, and namely the iconic Kisses, were all about the experience of enjoying their chocolate with people you love. So I figured I’d venture down that route and market this line as a soda you can share with loved ones. I aimed to play off Hershey Kisses' romantic vibe (this project came to me around Valentine’s Day), so Hershey Kisses Soda felt like the right decision.
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My attention first went to designing the logo and choosing the fonts and colors I wanted to incorporate into this design. Keeping the original Kisses logo of course, I added the word “SODA” written in a clean, sans serif font, a little taller and thinner than the Kisses font for contrast. I decided on the use of the iconic Hershey’s chocolate brown and white, and I then added a complementary color depending on the package. (The main complementary color was this bright blue as seen on the carrier and stickers, but I also used royal blue and red for the straws.) I then had to decide what kinds of packages I wanted to create for this line extension. I saw in my research that bottles in carriers were not abnormal for big name competitor soda brands. Later, I too decided to design boxes for straws for Hershey Kisses Soda, so that it could be shared with someone you love, as an experience.
I found some bottles at Michael's that looked like old school milk bottles. This fit in perfectly with my theme, too, because the mouth of the bottle was definitely wide enough for multiple straws to fit if it were shared. I designed a simple wrap around label for it based on the logo design. (After final critiques, I think that I could revisit this label and play more with the shape of it to mimic the wave design in the overall look; see carrier). For the cap, I created a strap sticker to go over the cap first, which looks like the classic Hershey Kisses ribbon. Then on top of that, I added a second circular sticker featuring Hershey’s new, simplified kiss logo with clean lines and two simple shapes.
For the carrier, I ordered a blank carrier on Amazon and designed around this specific carrier’s dimensions. I made the major focal point of the piece (which I later incorporated into the other pieces) the chocolate bubbles with little Hershey Kiss shapes scattered throughout. The bubbles help impart the idea of both chocolate in terms of color and kisses, and soda in terms of texture and bubble imagery. I made these bubbles move in waves, and had similar corresponding wave shapes to suggest fluidity and smoothness. I originally had a flat grey background for the carrier but changed it to a grey to white gradient to mimic the sheen look of the classic Hershey Kiss foil and to give the design more dimension.
For the straws box design, I found a standard box template and added more height all around to better fit straws. I designed a window (to show off the product) with a small pop out in the lower right for the number of straws in each box. On the left side of the design, I also added a graphic representation of each straw with the appropriate color. Around the top of each panel, I mimicked the look of the classic Hershey Kiss ribbon with the repeated Kisses logo in blue. For the straws logo specifically, I used the same Hershey Kisses Soda logo I had, for brand recognizability, but added “straws!” beside it in a decorative loopy, fun font. I brought that loopy font into the carrier (for the slogan, “Dessert you can drink!” and for the logo on the Hershey Kisses Sticker set. For the stickers I made a simple hanging label design and designed some cute graphic representations of the Hershey’s brand and the soda line for any fans of Hershey’s products to collect and use.