“I’m more interested in looking at other influences, not looking at graphic design. And instead, looking at a lot of philosophy.”

Today, Perkins creates branding for consumer packaged goods that seems completely adrift from any other branding playbook. Her portfolio, for example, boasts an unexpected sans serif system for an Australian alcohol company, and labels for a health food brand forged in luxurious gold.  

“I’m interested in doing work that has universal appeal,” she says. “How do I bring something new, a new perspective? So I look to more unconventional influences. I’m looking at a lot of art. There’s a lot of really great contemporary art, it’s very much part of my consciousness and my life. So I think that that’s made a huge influence. I mean, I’m a bit of an art nerd.”

Contemporary influences.

Perkins started her career as an art director and design lead at Hobart’s Museum of Old and New Art, or MONA. She was instrumental in branding Dark Mofo, the museum’s winter contemporary music and art festival, from its inception in 2013. “I kind of grew with that company,” says Perkins. “And that festival grew to be, I believe, the best art and music festival in Australia at that time. And being able to head up the branding and communications was an incredible learning curve and opportunity.” Working in close proximity to the art world also had an effect on her design sensibilities.

“I’m more interested in looking at other influences, not looking at graphic design. And instead, looking at a lot of philosophy,” she says. At the end of 2019, Perkins left Dark Mofo to start her own practice. She had won a new client in Taylor & Smith, an independent distillery based in Hobart. When Perkins visited Australia’s liquor stores (or bottle shops) for research, she discovered a sea of bland labels. “You have to get a lay of the land,” she explains. “And then you know what not to do.”

A recipe for success.

“One of the things that I really champion in my solutions is finding a distinct presence in the market. Looking at the gin shelf in Australian bottle shops about three years ago was pretty boring. Everything was in the same bottle. Very simple paper labels. Maybe a little bit of foiling if they had a little bit of extra money. But there were just so many clichés, and no one was trying anything remotely radical. It did take a little bit of convincing the clients that the safer approach for us was to actually go bold. Try something that no one has really done. Something like colored glass.” That’s when she paired modern type with bold colors and created the Taylor & Smith brand system.

For Taylor & Smith’s whiskey, she found herself drawn to the work of Olafur Eliasson, a Danish-Icelandic artist whose installation pieces center around the environment. “We’ve done a really great multicolored translucent packaging box, which was very much from thinking about Eliasson, and how he works with color as a representation of landscape,” Perkins says. 

The alcohol brand’s narrative involves the idea that their product is a distillation of Tasmania’s landscape, Perkins says. “And I think we’re using color as the primary cue to communicate landscape, and the qualities of the product. So that campaign is using colors like sky blues and sunshiny yellows, which are all influences on the whiskey itself.” And also happen to be colors representative of Tasmania.

The design was a hit. 

“Well and truly, it has a huge shelf presence and it’s memorable,” Perkins says. “I don’t know why people don’t do it more often.”

Rituals of design.

Next, the snack company Retreat Foods asked Perkins for something different. The purveyors of ready-made nut butters and almond butter puffs desired something more lasting than Millennial pink. Retreat focuses on wellness, according to Perkins, so she started thinking about the idea of ritual. “I was looking into all of those really interesting religious references, metal palettes, and golden light, and all of those qualities of religion and spirituality. I wanted to bring these characteristics back into a design solution.”

Perkins designed a Sanskrit-inspired mark for the brand, which recalls the visual language of yoga. She employed metallic finishes for the labels, giving the brand a feel of permanence and value while speaking to self care. “Using warm metallics was designed to radiate relaxation and calm, reflecting the effect the product’s active ingredients have on the body with daily use,” reads her Behance page.

Precious metals. 

Metal is prominent too in Perkins’ side passion, her jewelry brand. “My latest range works with titanium and it’s hand fired so you get all these beautiful rainbow colors. And it has a real ephemeral quality when you’re wearing it. The light hits it in different ways,” she says. In other pieces, she uses transition lenses that make the jewelry change color with the weather. “My jewelry and my design aesthetic is a particular style. And I think that probably comes out in both practices, even though they have entirely different objectives.” Being a jack-of-all-trades is also typical of Tasmanians, Perkins mentions. It’s one of the reasons she loves Hobart: creatives have many strings to their bow.

“I think I’ve been quite unusual in the sense that I stayed here,” she says. Creatives raised in Hobart often flock to nearby Melbourne, or overseas, where work is plentiful. But Perkins hopes to entice international clients to  Tasmania. “We’ve got really strong creatives down here, who I collaborate with regularly on some of these projects. So I really think that Tassie is one of those places that, although it is small, it’s just got the right environment for strong creative work.”

“I think of how creatives work in Tasmania. They’re just very connected to the environment,” she says. While working for Taylor & Smith, for instance, she discovered a new use for the rhubarb growing in her backyard. “I made a whole bunch of sparkling rhubarb — that’s rhubarb with soda and gin,” she says. “It’s a good time.”

To see more of Megan Perkins’ work, visit her Behance.

Creativity for all.