Tunnocks Teacake in China

Tunnocks is a family business that has been producing biscuits since 1880 and now trade in over 18 countries. They decided to take their famous teacakes to China, and they needed a delicious, mouth-watering brochure for distributors. We found ourselves competing for this particular project due them being in such high demand, but due to our involvement with multi-lingual design, and our being in the right place at the right time, we got the job.

We were asked to produce a top quality brochure that showcased the importance of the Tunnocks family history, as well as the legend of the Tunnocks Teacake, all in a bi-lingual and digestible format. We made the decision to design this brochure based on a geographical timeline, outlining the international presence of Tunnocks. Due to the additional translation requirements, we mirrored the text on adjacent pages, with the English language displayed on one side, and Chinese on the other.

We drew vectors for each country, city and continent trading in Tunnocks Teacakes - Shanghai, New York, Sydney, Dubai, London and Paris - and we structured our geographical timeline based on them. We also fashioned the Teacake into a Chinese lantern floating through the sky, which juxtaposed very nicely with the British features in the brochure – red telephone boxes etc. – compiled along with classic Tunnocks regalia and their postbox red corporate colourings.

One challenge that we were faced with during this project was the worry that the Tunnocks Teacake design could be confused with the very stereotypical rising sun emblem of Japan, due to the red and white striped graphics. We had to be extremely conscientious and considerate of this concern throughout the design process, which took great care and constant attention to detail.