De Cecco (Student Project)

Derrick Lin

Global

Designer: Sophia Forte
School: Norwich university of the arts
Course: Graphic design
Tutor: Lucy Blazey, Maria Fletcher
Project Type: Student Project
Location: Norwich
Packaging Contents: Pasta

The De Cecco family live in Fara San Martino, Italy. This is a mountainous region, with cold weather conditions. Their pasta factory is at the bottom of the mountains. This is particularly special because it has revolutionised the pasta industry. Traditionally, pasta was dried on large trays in the sun, to retain the quality.

The De Cecco brothers’ wanted to start making pasta, but faced one issue. The poor weather conditions obstructed the possible production of pasta. Filipo De Cecco (one of the brothers’) invented a low temperature drying machine. This cools the pasta at a low temperature, holds the nutrients of the pasta and preserves the quality. This enabled them to stay located by the mountains, whilst exceeding limitations due to weather. This invention has also spread Italian cuisine worldwide. They call it the De Cecco method.

This influential story of invention and innovation inspired the design of the packaging. Fresh spring water from the mountains and golden wheat from the family mill is blended to make their premium pasta. This is reflected through the packaging, illustrating each pack featuring a section of the mountain scape at Fara San Martino. On shelf, these line up to create a full mountain scape. This enables potential extra packs to be added on shelf, creating a mountain panoramic.

What’s Unique?
The craft into the packaging and idea of the location inspiring the design makes this special, showing the pasta is from the mountains. The other special feature is that the range can be extended to many other packs of pasta. I made mountainscapes from Real pasta.