Heinz - Everyday Poster Series - Amasha Udari Nanayakkara's Portfolio

Heinz - Everyday Poster Series

For this assignment we were asked to do a poster series on anything we wanted.

When I first thought of the ketchup bottle idea was during a separate assignment, where we had to pick a bad design from an everyday object and think of an improvement.

Screenshot of every Ketch Up bottle with a description on why it's ineffective to use.

One of my objects was a ketchup bottle. So I thought I'd bring back this idea for this.

For this project, I decided my client will be Heinz, since its a ketchup bottle. This is the creative brief for this project.

Heinz is advertising their new product "Pump it Ketchup". It's a new bottle that makes pouring Ketchup more effortless. Their target audience is families, children, adults, elders. Anyone who enjoys Ketchup or any sauce.

What exactly is the problem?

Aren't you tired of always slapping your hands against the bottom of the bottle to get the sauce that's stuck in the bottom? I know I am!

Well no more of that!

Introducing~ Pump it Ketch up by Heinz. No more shaking, no more tapping and no more getting frustrated! Pump it makes it easier to get your Ketchup down to the bottom of the barrel. With a built in button mechanism at the bottom, it allows you to hit every wall inside of your Ketchup Bottle. Pushing it down easier for you to pour it onto to your delicacies.

From all the images I've looked at these two were the most I took inspiration out of. From the consistency to the style.

Illustration of a seamless poster series of Atlantic City, done by NJ Poster.

Goldman, N., & Kuhlken, D. (2012, June 16). Phish // Atlantic City, NJ poster series [Graphic design]. DKNG Studios. https://www.dkngstudios.com/blog/2012/06/16/phish-atlantic-city-nj-poster-series

For this one I really like how the image continues on to the other posters like a puzzle and how the title is incorporated into the illustration to make it almost look seamless.

nakao2. (2023, May [estimated based on publication “2.2 years ago” from 2025]) スパコミ新刊 LOVE [Illustrated book]. BOOTH. https://booth.pm/ja/items/4746325

I was going through Pinterest looking for design style inspirations and came across this. It reminds me of pop art. I love how the typography kind of merges with the border and the classic dots you usually see in pop art, comics and manga. I know this kind of style isn't typically done by Heinz but with the sketch idea, I ended up going with something similar. This layout stuck with me while I was sketching out some ideas.

Sketches of the design of the ketchup bottle

When I first thought of the bottle design. I thought of those white board markers that had a button at the back, so you could press to refill if the ink ran out. So I took inspiration from this and combined the usual Heinz Ketchup Bottle and the marker together.

When I thought of what to use to describe this new design, the word Pump kept coming to mind and when that came, for the tag line, two songs came to mind.

"Pump it harder by Black Eyed Peas."

And..

"Pump it up by Endor."

I thought I could use the lyrics to tie the posters together so from the two songs I chose the second option because, it had less and manageable words.

From there I made my sketches. I took inspiration from comics with their panels. So I thought I could try using the same concept to convey or emphasis on some information but as you can see, the inspiration from the first image is quite consistent with the sketches. Especially the usage of the border.

Here is the final three I decided on doing. At first I wasn't planning on using the Heinz logo but later added it while working on the final because it made more sense. I added more phrases to emphasis on what exactly the advertisement is.

I did a quick mock up on procreate to see what colors I could use. Something felt missing. The background was too plain for my liking.

So I went back to researching and looked through some pop art posters. I took inspiration from the poke dot background used and decided to put more patterns and textures to the background.

Then got started with the final designed. I illustrated the bottle and background on Procreate first...

Illustration of the ketchup bottle design.

then put everything together and designed the poster on Adobe Photoshop. I really wanted it to give off that a comic vibe.

Here is the final!

Comic-style Heinz Tomato Ketchup poster featuring a new pump bottle bursting with color. Bold text reads “PUMP IT UP” with catchphrases like “No more, no more sauce!” and a release date: April 19, 2024, at Walmart.

Bright and energetic Heinz ketchup ad with a tilted pump bottle and dynamic pop-art layout. Slogan reads “U GOT TO PUMP IT UP” with a reminder of the April 19th Walmart release. Visuals highlight the ketchup pump cap up close.

Vibrant ketchup poster styled like a retro comic. Features the new Heinz pump bottle with the phrase “Don’t you know? Pump it up.” Taglines promote the mess-free experience: “No tap! No shake! Just pump!”

I wanted the posters to stand out at first glance. Literally screaming at you too look at them and thinking about the lyrics I used. What fit the vibe for those lyrics was in my opinion something really out there like pop art.

I utilised texture in the background to help make the text and images stand out clearer, using them as shadows like you would see in the comic also help keep the pop art style consistent through out the process.

I used these vibrant colors because it fit the comic pop vibe I was going for and it contrasts well with the red.

I struggled a lot with the color pallet and finding warm tones that won't camouflage with the red too much. So I looked into a lot of pop art designs that utilised red in them.

The alignment was another issue as I wanted the lyrics to be the attract of the poster and then the bottle be the interest that follows but figuring out how to make lyrics fit was tricky. However, I managed to play around with the sizes of the graphics and make it work.