Cornflakes to Cola: Sainsbury’s Design Studio 1962-77


Nostalgic small exhibition at the Design Museum to mark 150th anniversary of Sainsbury’s supermarket by looking at the role of their in-house design department in the 1960s and 70s.

With the end of rationing in 1954 and the opening of the first self-service store in 1950, packaging took on a more important role as there was more choice and products had to stand out from their competitors. Sainsbury’s therefore saw the need for an in house team to design packaging for their own brand products. They produced hundreds of packages a year and also worked on store guidance and staff publications.

I liked a case which took you through the design process for a 1966 cola tin from initial ideas to the finished product. Also a set of photo slides of products on shelves to give ideas of how to make the own brands stand out.

It was nostalgic to see some of these packs from my childhood although we didn’t have a Sainsbury’s in my home town until the 1980s. These were exotic designs I saw when visiting my parents’ friends and they felt cutting edge and trendy. I was intrigued to see that each design only used a maximum of three colours and that the CEO looked at every concept.


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