We’ve managed to create a finalized design for both of our two packaging solutions after some feedback. For starters both designs would need to be smaller, something we’d already considered which has now been confirmed. I mean honestly, how many worms would an average person eat in one sitting? Probably not very many. We were also encouraged to try using the octagonal shape for our raw product, and after a few iterations we’ve settled on a design that looks quite neat.

The new raw product package looks something like a bento box

Thematical design changes

On top of the structural changes, we’ve decided on a few changes to the general mood we had. What was once a fanciful concept meant to entice imagination has now become something more dark and sinister. More brothers Grimm, more horror and darkness, more exploration of that fear that lies behind the whole idea of eating insects.
We’re a bit concerned that from a marketing standpoint we’d be shooting ourselves in the foot. Is it actually possible to scare people into eating something new? The train of thought going through this new decision is that we want to be the light that guides the consumer through the insect-eating experience. So for the design we want to convey this feeling of horror, but also a sense of security.

The woes of illustration

The main issue we face with this theme is that the illustration has to be really good for it to work. We’re not really strong illustrators so we’ve decided to find inspiration in the works of Junji Itou, renowned horror manga artist. This gives us a very distinct stylistic base that we hope will help us find that touch of absolute horror that we need. So far we’ve got a preliminary design for the snack packet, and with some work we feel it’ll have the right impact.

Horror sago worms fear the light