OUGD402 STUDIO BRIEF 1 - RUBIES IN THE RUBBLE CHUTNEY

Rubies in the Rubble chutney has a different mission statement for producing chutney and jams than many other chutney and jam producers. Rubies in the Rubble use mainly fresh fruit and vegetables that are about to be discarded by farms and markets as excess produce, but before they are actually discarded, to try and tackle the problem of a generation of excess waste makers, as "western countries produce up to 300% more food than we actually need, while 1 billion people suffer from malnutrition." Ideally this excess food should be distributed fairly to those most in need, however Rubies in the Rubble cannot undertake this mammoth task on their own, so their individual and valuable way of putting some of that excess food to good use, is by rescuing it before it reaches the buns, and turning it into delicious jams, pickles and chutneys.
Rubies in the Rubble wants their jams a pickles and chutneys to be the "literal solutions to food waste. But we also want them to stand as symbolic vehicles of our message- to consume less, think more, and be proud of it." I think that this is an excellent motto to live by, as I for one know myself and many others often make too much food than we can eat and end up throwing it away, or buying too much food we can't eat in time so we have to chuck it out. This is a deadly road we as a generation and world are heading down, and it is so easy to stop, if everyone has the same mindset as Rubies in the Rubble, I'm sure we can solve this problem together.

Rubies in the Rubble is not only a solution to a global crisis, but their little pots of revolution look delicious as well, and their website certainly sells them at their best.

When first entering their website, this is the delicious sight you are greeted with. The little pots of preserves all lined up with colour coordinated labels, a spoon resting in one of the pots. The jars are the main focus of the page, and so they should be.

Before you get a chance to look at the contents of the jars too closely however the image switches to several photographs of some of the colourful fruits and vegetables that are used in their products, to show that even though they may be excess foods for farms and markets, they are by no means damaged or unfit for human consumption.

This is another example of the kinds of photographs you can expect across the top of the website. Even if you didn't like tomatoes, I can't imagine how you couldn't find this photograph appealing in some way. The rich red of the tomatoes and the juiciness of the segments is sublime.

Rubies in the Rubble also has a nifty little logo, one that is refined and evidently well thought about. It is also subtle as well, as at first glance on the website it just looks like a circle with some text in, but when you look closer, the circle have two hexagons inside of it, at slightly different angles to give the appearance of gemstones, rubies perhaps, crystals even. I like how this is done with two simple shapes, rather than trying to draw individual gemstones to put inside the circle instead. It makes the design look much less effortless and simple. By looking at this logo studiously I have also discovered just now that the circle itself and decorations actually looks like a jewel from above, which was not apparent at first sight, however now it is quite clear. Perhaps this is something the company wanted to hint at, but make not very obvious incase it looked gaudy. A serif typeface has been used for the logo text as well, in both upper and lower case. The use of this serif typeface hints at the age of the produce used for the preserves, and also at the name of the company, as rubies are often extremely old, and rubble as well, you can't exactly buy rubble fresh from the grocery isle in a supermarket. This typeface's uppercase letterforms are also quite squished down, which gives it a slightly less menacing, more feminine appearance perhaps, as I imagine mainly women would take the time to search out for such sourced preserves, of course this is stereotypical of the female gender. The use of "in the" in lower case letterforms makes the rest of the brand name stand out and highlight it's importance, and also makes the whole logo appear slightly more elegant and like it should be some jewel in a desert far away.