Biggie Smalls and pals star in new kids' snack branding

Taking on its first kids' product project as an agency, The Clerkenwell Brothers was challenged to build on the parent brand and create "a new brand world that was attractive to both kids and their parents," says creative director Faraz Aghaei.

The brand centres around three fruit characters the agency named Blemmy, Bumps and—somewhat incongruously—Biggie Smalls. Illustrator Nathan Joyce was commissioned to bring them to life, drawing them as cheeky, brightly coloured little anthropomorphised apples. The agency sheds some light on their unusual names: "Bumps likes his pip-hop beats, Biggie Smalls runs his own disco; the Ministry of Round and Blemmy was raised by her Granny Smith to be just a little odd."

Their slightly jaggedy appearance hints to the brand itself, which creates its fruit crisps entirely from air-dried "wonky fruit", with no artificial additives, sugar or palm oil. They're sold in three flavours—Plain Apple, Apple & Mango and Apple & Strawberry.

The three characters are used across the packaging and as part of the broader brand architecture in other applications such as poster advertisements and colouring books. "As the original brand, Spare Snacks was a playful and uplifting exploration of paper cutting and vibrant colour. Translating this into a kids' range seemed a natural evolution," says Alice Dobbie, chief of art at The Clerkenwell Brothers. "We had a clear vision from the off, designing a new version of Spare's Wonky Cut lettering, then developing the papercut fruit pieces."