KING'S HEAD
Personal Project | Packaging | Identity | Naming
Strategy / Copywriting
King's Head celebrates the legendary history of cheese, rife with culture, revolutionary action, and 'beyond the cheeseboard' innovation.
At the heart of every legend, there is someone craving cheese. From the French Revolution, to riots in England, to naval battles in the Atlantic Ocean, cheese is tied to some of the world’s most legendary conflicts. Though it now often accompanies a glass of wine, it once accompanied a splash of blood and was far from the refined, elegant foodstuff we perceive it as today.
ORIGINS
Cheese has culture, in more ways than one. King’s Head wants to return the product to the hands of those who inspired its greatest moments - the revolutionaries.
Whether it is a die-hard Patriots fan refusing to follow Brady to the Buccaneers, college students creating a start-up in their dorm room or a non-profit feeding protestors in the streets, we believe that cheese fuels radical determination, revolutionary action, and beyond-the-cheeseboard innovation.
The King is dead, long live the Cheese! The name “King’s Head” refers to how King Louis XVI’s insatiable love for Brie cheese ended up with his demise at the blade of a guillotine. When fleeing France, despite knowing the danger he faced, the King decided to stop at an inn famous for its Brie. This allowed the revolutionaries to catch up and capture him, hauling him back to Paris for his execution.
STRATEGY
In developing a strategy, I studied how existing cheese brands present themselves and interact in this space.
Three key things stood out:
- Within a brand, cheese types are often color-coded.
- More often than not, gourmet cheese lacks a strong brand identity.
- There is often extensive text and little in the way of imagery on the package.
What makes King's Head revolutionary, is the way it commands an unrival presence amongst its contemporaries. King's Head has a target audience of 30-somethings, skewing male. King's Head is not for the cheese coinsseurs. Its for beer drinkers who have never heard of a 'wine aerator' and for those who would rather enjoy a platter of snacks on the coffee table during a football game than a charcuterie board in a white-table-cloth restaurant.
Thinking about our audience, key design decisions were made -- King’s Head has a cohesive color palette that stands out unflinchingly against the pastels and jewel tones of the cheese counter. Instead of a color system denoting cheese varieties, dynamic packaging shapes work to identify the varieties within the brand, reflecting both the natural geometry of cheese and nods to the history of these legendary cheeses. Finally, King’s Head combines energetic typesetting with historic etchings to present a dynamic presence.
Cheese to cheer for!
Always spoiling for legendary moments, King's Head is the official cheese of the Green Bay Packers. Promotional marketing and advertising can be found around Lambeau Field and is embedded within Cheesehead merchandise.
