TEa Me – Scottish Blend Takeover

rebranding & packaging design

A social-good packaging and campaign project exploring how an everyday supermarket brand could be used as a vehicle for positive social change. The brief was to select a social issue or cause and temporarily ‘take over’ an existing brand for a month-long campaign. I chose See Me Scotland, a charity working to challenge mental health stigma, and Scottish Blend tea as the vehicle for the campaign. Tea felt like a natural fit. A cup of tea can be a small moment of calm, a chance to take some time for yourself, or an invitation to sit down and talk. I wanted to use this familiar ritual to encourage more open and honest conversations around mental health.

Turning the Brand on Its Head

Rather than subtly adapting the existing Scottish Blend packaging, I wanted the takeover to feel impossible to ignore. I deliberately moved away from the traditional Scottish imagery, dark blue colour palette and photographic style of the original packaging, replacing them with a brighter, more contemporary and approachable visual identity. I took inspiration from See Me Scotland’s campaigns and the honest stories shared by people living with mental health issues. Hand-drawn illustrations became a key part of the design, featuring deliberately unfiltered and sometimes uncomfortable subjects from medication and sad faces to more unexpected imagery such as ‘statement bananas’. The intention was to make conversations around mental health feel more normal, human and approachable. I also developed a friendlier typographic treatment for the Scottish Blend logo, retaining the traditional serif character while giving it a more contemporary feel.

More Than Just Packaging

The campaign extended beyond the box itself. Each individually wrapped tea bag featured a real story from the See Me Scotland community, giving people something meaningful to read while waiting for the kettle to boil. The tea bag string was paired with an illustrated tea weight representing the person behind each story. I also introduced the hashtag #METIME, encouraging people to share their own experiences and stories online. The aim was to turn a simple cup of tea into a small moment for reflection, conversation and connection. The final concept demonstrates how packaging can become more than a container for a product — it can create an experience, start a conversation and give a social message a tangible place in everyday life.