Greek Dressing

Batsakis Foods approached me to design their first product label for Andi's Authentic Greek Dressing. The client had two requirements: include the Greek Key and the blue from the Greek Flag (PMS 286C).

Of course, my first step was to visit my friend Dr. Google to research Greek history and culture. I’ve also been a fan of Greek history since college, so I dug into my old notes to see if there was anything interesting there. I think my favorite part was discovering the different patterns associated with Greek culture. I also learned that there are many ways to make a Greek Key. I never really understood or noticed the subtleties before, but I see them now and am still amazing at the versatility and creativity within just this one pattern element.



While doing my research, I discovered a really neat “flower” icon that I thought might give an interesting perspective versus the traditional Greek key. I also explored the idea of doing mosaic tiles, but quickly ruled it out as I couldn’t seem to get the right feel to the label. It just always seemed too cluttered and busy with the tiles there.




Oddly enough, the cream color was inspired by one of my Netflix movies. I for the life of me can’t remember which movie it was. All I remember is that the female lead worked for her parents in a cool little Greek cafe and the blue and cream colors were on the walls.

Using the Greek flag blue and cream as a base, I broaden the color palate out to five colors: Cream (PMS 1205), Burnt Umber (PMS 491), Olive (PMS 582), and Black. Burnt Umber and Olive were inspired by some ancient Greek pottery that I found in my research.



I complemented the traditional "Greek" typeface of Lithos pro with Trajan Pro to maintain a clean, upscale look for the label.

So far, the client has been extremely pleased with the results, completely selling out of 500 jars at the local Greek Festival.



All in all, I’m satisfied with the label. I wish I could have explored more untraditional type treatments that could have still given a Greek flavor to the label. And if I could’ve figured out the mosaic pattern or a way to incorporate some Greek text into the label, that would’ve rocked it. Oh well, maybe next time…