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Jam product

We are currently designing a new jam product. The target group are +30-year-old people living in Rotterdam (known for its green and white flag). It is a product with a philanthropic end goal: all the profits will go to combat loneliness among the elderly in Rotterdam (and sustaining the business). The jam will also have way more natural sugars (and no artificial colouring) in comparison to artificial sugars/colouring which are included in most jam jars in the supermarket.

Logo

We want to keep the local elements in the logo, however, we got feedback that the logo's font looks rather cheap. The logo is supposed to look modern while including a more vintage vibe. enter image description here

Product label

Moreover, the jam jar is rather small (4 cm high) so feedback has shown us that it looks too busy. enter image description here

We appreciate all feedback!

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    @user287001 In the UK, a "rotter" is a cruel or unkind person, someone who has a rotten heart. Rotterjam sounds like jam for cruel people. WTF!!
    – Billy Kerr
    Jan 11, 2021 at 17:48
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    I agree with @Billy: the name is obviously a play on Rotterdam, but in English it conjures up jam for rotters, rotten jam, just generally things relating to rotting – not good. I agree the logo is too busy, and the ideograms aren’t clear (is the middle a mountain or a road? And what is on the right?). I don’t mind the logo font, but the plethora of different fonts on the product label are definitely too busy, and the ‘lokaal product’ font a bit too irregular. Most strikingly, though, the dark green is really, really un-jammy to me. Fine for beer, all wrong for jam.
    – Janus Bahs Jacquet
    Jan 11, 2021 at 23:21
  • Hi, Jill! Is there a brand guideline that would help narrow down a voice/personality? Or is the this label all there is to the brand so far? What do the labels look like of the other jams that will be on the shelf next to this one? Will it potentially expand to have multiple flavors (that the design might need to account for later)? These are considerations that can really help guide design decisions. For my money, there's a lot of unused "real estate" on the central area of the label caused by the difference in shape between the oval logo and circular central area and this looks a little odd.
    – Rykara
    Jan 12, 2021 at 22:10
  • (1) Hi Rykara, since Rotterdam is a modern city (it got bombed during WW2), people associate Rotterdam with modern and artistic aesthetics. We tried to keep the "modern" aspect in the product label while at the same time maintaining a "vintage" look. After some surveys and desk research, we found that we should not include any images of elderly since customers may think the product is aimed at only elderly (while it is a social product that is aimed at elderly). We are trying to solve this to include an attached card that highlights the social purpose of the jam.
    – Jill
    Jan 14, 2021 at 12:03
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    I rolled back your edit, because it deleted the question. As @Wolff already mentioned, this is a Q&A forum, we like to keep Questions ans Answers intact so later visitors can learn from the interaction. If you want to thank the answerers, please do so as a comment. If you have any questions about how the site works, please have a look at the help center. Thanks for understanding!
    – Vincent
    Mar 1, 2021 at 21:45

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I would say the font might feel cheap because it's not very unique. It look like generic font from "back in the day" that was OCR'ed for modern use. Apart from R there is nothing unique about it. Maybe if the M closed the word in the same manner R is then the whole word would look more thoughtful than a slap on.

For the logo itself - It's not bad but the weight of the lines and overlaping object looks more like a sketch of a logo rather than final one. For example the lack of detail in Marketplace building make it looks more like a tunnel entry (or that chinese fake bus). Also the bridge is suspended in the air. You could make the tower don't stand on anything, make it looks like it's 1st plane. Then marketplace, made with a finer line to show detail. And in the background the brigde with main pylon and very fine lines of... lines. It might look busy but the difference in weight of the object would make reading them more easy.

The shape itself make me thing about Cameo so maybe draw object with only lines on one side of objects visible.

The last picture with the font background. I would totally scrap that, this is cheap souvenir you can buy everywhere. Name of the city written in as many free fonts you have on your computer. Or bedding. I would rather clutter it with the shape of the river or old lines from Rotterdam map. That could help with envoking the "vintage" or "old" feel.

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  • Hello SZCZERZO KŁY. Thank you for your feedback. Would you recommend the weight of the lines to be thinner (or more detailed)? Also, the overlapping objects were meant to bring more dimension into the product. The Markthal feedback is very helpful, thanks for that. The font background is definitely something we will rethink, your suggestions sound nice. "The shape itself make me thing about Cameo so maybe draw object with only lines on one side of objects visible" is a bit unclear to me, could you perhaps clarify what you meant by this?
    – Jill
    Jan 14, 2021 at 12:25
  • With the type od drawing for the cameo I had in mind something like you can see here en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erotes Notive how the thickness of a line on one side give the impression of "popping out" as it work as a shadow and show source of light.
    – SZCZERZO KŁY
    Jan 15, 2021 at 8:54
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I removed my comment and inserted an answer. At first thanks for @Billy Kerr telling how English speakers see name ROTTERJAM. I only suspected it can have something like "Rape Biscuits" where Rape means "crispy" in the local language. English language tail pulls up the English meaning of the first part, it doesn't help at all what the name inventor possibly has hoped.

About logo and label: If still possible, invent a general trading name, something high society (I write temporarily it "Van Huismeister") which sounds plausible also in front of text "Since 1778". The font must be very traditional looking and easy to read. Let that name be the biggest element. Call the product Rotterdam Jam,if it's still possible. Tell it contains only Apple, Gember and sugar. The logo can be small, Van Huismeister's Rotterdam Jam must be well visible. The logo must be well crafted like old trading house or noble logos. You can use town scene instead of swords, crowns, lions etc... But it must look like it's created by a skilled engraver. It's simply out of the possibilities of beginners and casual hobbyists. Gold as one of the colors is welcome!

If you never make anything else than jam, you can scrap "Van Huismeister" and use instead of it "Rotterdam Jam".

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  • "Rotterjam" No! "Rotterdam Jam" Yes! LOL ;)
    – Billy Kerr
    Jan 12, 2021 at 15:09
  • Thanks both! I appreciate both your honesty, and can definitely see where you're coming from regarding the brand name. It's, unfortunately, something I cannot change given the scope of the venture and its already-established brand awareness. We will thank into account all the other feedback though, very helpful. Thanks a lot.
    – Jill
    Jan 14, 2021 at 12:28

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