Australian grocery distributor Dallas international approached Stephen to produce a range of stacked potato chips under the Potato Face brand. The brief was to design a fun, quirky and eye-catching pack to attract the Australian consumer. Franklin focused on the Potato Face brand character, envisioning it playing in different situations, giving a unique identity to each product variant. The result was a set of playful characters paired with bright, colourful environments that gave the range a life of its own, and visibly separated it from the competition when on shelf.
Design Coordination: Anita Martini
Creative Direction: Stephen Franklin
Graphic Design: Stephen Franklin
Retouching: Stephen Franklin
![Potato Face Original, Sour Cream and Barbecue brand packaging.](https://cdn.myportfolio.com/30540a041e3b3bfb94b5d422aa258a0c/5ede06bd-5f4b-43ad-a6f5-857655359f7d_rw_1920.jpg?h=818a6d92f33408ddc43dfc0e88d1cbcb)
The initial range consisted of three variants, Original, Sour Cream and Barbecue. Stephen would later produce the Salt and Vinegar range extension.
![Preliminary sketches of Potato Face stacked chip characters.](https://cdn.myportfolio.com/30540a041e3b3bfb94b5d422aa258a0c/596bae01-814b-4832-a5a7-e68788785317_rw_1920.jpg?h=0c7224e2bba7335e9e487170eec8779d)
Working with the existing potato face brand identity, Stephen sketched initial ideas for the character of each variant.
![Completed Potato Face stacked chip characters with thumbs up winking, hands in air, and chef’s hat and tongs.](https://cdn.myportfolio.com/30540a041e3b3bfb94b5d422aa258a0c/3dd19913-37df-40cf-a640-7337309cb4cb_rw_1920.jpg?h=1a00da6e7e9a5d7ed1f2d9bb509dfb7e)
With direction from the client, Stephen added hair to the first two characters, giving each with their own unique personality.
![Front of pack backgrounds. Original – blue starburst. Sour Cream – green swoosh. Barbeque – red flames.](https://cdn.myportfolio.com/30540a041e3b3bfb94b5d422aa258a0c/424379c8-96b5-43cd-91c3-ca8ac127bc3f_rw_1920.jpg?h=cdd12011a079167cee282635095f881e)
Rich, colourful backgrounds were developed for each pack to support the new Potato Face characters and provide good separation of the variants on shelf.
![The Original character in place on the blue variant background.](https://cdn.myportfolio.com/30540a041e3b3bfb94b5d422aa258a0c/2d17c727-405e-48f7-babb-79056462c453_rw_1920.jpg?h=b910f781fa5d2e6a50a619759f440a32)
Each character was then combined with the backgrounds and placed above the product shot to form the final front of pack composition.
![The full range of Potato Face Stacked Chips.](https://cdn.myportfolio.com/30540a041e3b3bfb94b5d422aa258a0c/d66a3f5b-e1a4-495e-a831-ad1378149497_rw_1920.jpg?h=77fbb1b7208f639f44c6f3c72aa5ae6e)
The final packs each had a unique, quirky character, with strong eye-catching flavour cues.