S Group illustrations

The S Group (Finnish: S-ryhmä) is a Finnish retailing cooperative organisation. It consists of 20 regional cooperatives operating all around Finland. S Group operates in the markets for groceries, consumer durables, service station, hotel and restaurant services.

S Group wanted to renew illustrations for their reusable bags. Last update was done back in 2013.

CLIENT: S Group
ROLE: Designer / Illustrator

The previous designs were high resolution photographs of berries (strawberries, lingonberries, cloudberries, blueberries, cranberries) and citrus fruits (limes and oranges). They were very colourful, really full, almost like patterns.

We created two concepts. First one was colourful paper cutout collages of seasons plants and vegetables. In the second concept, we aimed for Scandinavian minimalism, timeless black&white designs. Inspiration for the subjects came from Finnish nature.

For voting purposes, I made quick digital sketches of birches, lingonberries, reeds and pinecones, mainly using Photoshop and Procreate. Our client held public voting on their Facebook page, to see which of the designs consumers like the best. Out of 12 entries, the Reeds got the most votes (22,8%), Birches the second most votes (13,7%) and Pinecone the third most votes (13,1%). And all three went into production.

The bags will be in stores in 2022/2023!