Package Design - April 2014 - 23

The pasta sauce aisle in most supermarkets is a crowded
place, loaded with drawings of ripe tomatoes and glowing
white garlic, woodcut-style drawings of abundant fields, and
old-fashioned depictions of chefs and Renaissance angels.
to $9.00 per package, they're not the most
expensive sauces on the shelf, but they're
close, and as with a fine wine, customers
get what they pay for.
Communicating that quality fell to
friend and longtime Pirro's Ristorante customer Michael Stanard of design firm
One Zero Charlie. Stanard and designer
Mary Ervin teamed up to try to capture
the sense of authenticity that marks Pirro's sauces.
"The guy's an artist," Stanard says.
"He's really serious about his heritage,
about being Italian-American. We wanted
to get to a European sensibility with
American practicality."
One Zero Charlie presented Pirro
with three label designs. "Two were what
you'd expect," says Stanard. "And then
there was the one with the little Fiat. It
seemed like a radical departure."
The winning choice looks like a frame
right out of a vintage Sophia Loren movie.
A glance down a cobblestone street
reveals an adorably homely Fiat parked
against a pockmarked wall that's clearly
seen generations go by. It could be a side
street in Rome. It could be a village in
the mountains. Wherever it is, it's in
Italy-that much seems sure.
Unlike the deep red backgrounds of
most other pasta sauces on the shelf, One
Zero Charlie muted the stock street scene
photo into black-and-white-except for
the car, which is printed in festive spot
color to match the logo panel that appears
below. The company's name, the style of
sauce, "All Natural" and "American Old
World Style" are boldly, simply spelled out
in Gotham type. Pirro and his mother,
Josephine, smile from the side of the
wraparound label in a 1959 snapshot.
Each of the six sauces in the Pirro's
lineup has its own cheerful color, from
Key lime green to mango yellow to fire
engine red. It's a touch of Italian-style
design sensibility-modern but not
avant-garde, striking but classy.

"We wanted to do something that was
distinct in the marketplace-compelling,
simply stated, something with a sense of
authority without being arrogant or
haughty," says Stanard. "There's nothing
stamped or gilded about it, no extraordinary production values. There's a certain
confidence and certainty to this design.
There's something endearing about it."
Pirro describes the choice as a "no-

the spot-color design even more practical, notes Kevin Kennedy, sales manager
for Reliable Label. Pirro called Kennedy
at the suggestion of his co-packer,
Dorina So-Good. It didn't take the two
men long to realize that they'd gone to
high school together. The circle of
friends continued to grow. Kennedy says
he was impressed by the Illustrator
design files he received at the start of the

Pirro's Sauce stands out with bold colors and elegant, understated two-color graphics on the
shelves of dozens of Whole Foods stores.

brainer." "All it took was one look," he says.
Ironically, Whole Foods shoppers give
the label more than one quick look.
"When you go to Whole Foods, everybody's reading the label," Pirro notes.
"They're concerned with every ingredient
in there."
That's all the more reason, he points
out, to have clear type that boldly asserts
the sauces' natural, preservative-free,
non-GMO provenance.

Simple and honest
Those all-natural ingredients are expensive. So is slow-cooking Pirro's sauces
by the batch. That leaves no room for
extravagance in packaging, says Pirro,
who's funded the sauce business from
his savings.
The need for cost-efficiency makes

project from One Zero Charlie.
"They actually made a two-color label
look much better than I thought a twocolor label could look," Kennedy notes.
Setup on Reliable Labels' Mark Andy
2200 flexo press is quick and changeovers
efficient with just two plates and a switch
of PMS colors. Label stock-55-lb. white
semi-gloss from Green Bay Packaging-
and an all-temperature, permanent adhesive are easy to apply to standard, no-frills
24-oz. jars. Gloss UV varnish protects the
water-based inks from Environmental
Inks in handling and on the shelf, maintaining the clean look of the graphics. A
plain, black lid complements the design
and reflects the no-nonsense practicality
behind the package without ever selling
short the quality of its contents.
continued on page 39
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Package Design - April 2014

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