Overview
Worked as a Variable Design Consultant on the Cadbury Dairy Milk x Premier League campaign, collaborating with Mondelez, design agency Marks and prepress partner SGSco to develop a collectible packaging series across multiple football clubs.
The project focused on creating a cohesive yet highly variable design system, allowing each club to have a distinct identity while remaining recognisably part of the Cadbury brand.
The Challenge
To design a scalable system that enables multiple packaging variations across different football clubs, ensuring each design feels unique while maintaining brand consistency and collectability.
Concept
Developed a “Variable Design Strategy”, creating a structured base template that allows for controlled variation across graphics, colour and layout.
Each pack represents a specific football club, with visual elements tailored to reflect club identity while maintaining a unified overall design.
Approach
- Collaborated with Marks and SGSco from concept through to execution, shaping how the design system would function in practice
- Defined a grid-based template to support multiple layers of variable graphics
- Applied variable image channels, including square and rectangular elements associated with each club
- Integrated the system into production using Adobe Illustrator and HP SmartStream Designer
- Supported the implementation of a JavaScript-driven logic system, ensuring no adjacent elements repeated in colour or design
- Ensured consistency across all variations while enabling large-scale production
Outcome
Delivered a collectible packaging range across multiple Premier League clubs, successfully combining brand consistency with high levels of variation. The project demonstrates how structured design systems can support engaging, large-scale campaigns within licensed environments.
Relevance
This project demonstrates strong capabilities in design systems, licensed content and scalable visual storytelling, translating complex concepts into cohesive outputs — directly applicable to publishing, licensing and branded product design.
Photography by Andrew Hobbs