From Cheese Pack to 44-Tonne Billboard: Designing the Collier’s Promotional Trailer

When most people think of packaging design, they imagine supermarket shelves, product labels and point-of-sale displays. What they don’t often consider is how a successful brand can be translated across entirely different formats while retaining the same visual impact and recognition.

That was the challenge presented when Forty2Creative was commissioned to design the graphics for a new promotional trailer featuring Fayrefield Foods’ flagship Collier’s Powerful Cheddar brand.

The project required us to take a brand identity originally developed for a cheese pack and successfully scale it onto one of the largest moving advertising platforms available: a full-size refrigerated articulated trailer.

Building on an Established Brand

Collier’s is one of the UK’s most distinctive cheddar brands. Since creating the original packaging design, Forty2Creative has continued to manage and evolve the brand across a wide range of products, promotional materials and marketing campaigns.

The strength of the Collier’s identity comes from a carefully balanced combination of elements. The iconic miner imagery references the brand’s Welsh heritage and coal mining roots, while the bold typography and dramatic black-and-red colour palette communicate strength, character and maturity.

These assets have become instantly recognisable to consumers, making brand consistency an essential consideration for any new application.

Thinking Beyond Packaging

Designing graphics for a trailer is fundamentally different from designing packaging.

A cheese pack may be viewed from a distance of a few feet in a retail environment. A trailer, however, can be seen from hundreds of metres away, often while moving at motorway speeds.

This creates unique design challenges.

Typography must remain legible at long distances. Key messages need to be understood within seconds. Imagery must retain its impact when viewed across a surface measuring more than thirteen metres in length.

Simply enlarging existing artwork rarely produces an effective result.

Instead, every element must be reconsidered in relation to the scale of the vehicle, the viewing angles and the way the graphics interact with the physical structure of the trailer itself.

Creating a Mobile Brand Experience

The objective was not simply to decorate a vehicle but to create a powerful mobile advertisement that would reinforce the Collier’s brand wherever it travelled.

The final design places the Collier’s name prominently across the trailer, ensuring immediate recognition. The miner portrait creates a strong focal point while reinforcing the brand’s heritage story. Supporting graphics, including the colliery headgear imagery and product pack visuals, add depth and context without cluttering the composition.

Careful attention was given to visual hierarchy, ensuring that the most important messages remain clear whether the vehicle is viewed stationary at an exhibition or passing traffic on the motorway.

The result is a design that functions equally well as a brand statement, a promotional vehicle and a practical working trailer.

Technical Considerations

Large-format vehicle graphics require a high level of technical preparation.

Artwork must be created at production scale while maintaining image quality and colour consistency. Consideration must also be given to panel joins, door mechanisms, safety markings, lighting positions and other physical features that can interrupt the design.

Every graphic element was carefully positioned to work around these constraints while preserving the overall visual impact.

Working alongside Signs of the Times of Whitchurch, who produced and applied the graphics, we supplied detailed production-ready artwork designed specifically for the trailer’s dimensions and construction.

This collaboration between creative design and specialist vehicle graphics expertise ensured the finished result matched the original design vision.

Showcasing Welsh Heritage on an International Stage

The completed trailer was created to support Collier’s presence at the International Cheese & Dairy Expo 2026, providing a striking visual platform for one of Wales’ best-known food brands.

More than just a transport vehicle, the trailer acts as a travelling ambassador for the brand, carrying the Collier’s story to customers, distributors, retailers and industry professionals throughout the UK and beyond.

Projects such as this demonstrate how strong branding can successfully transcend its original application. Whether on a product pack, exhibition stand, website or a 44-tonne refrigerated trailer, effective design is about maintaining consistency, communicating a clear message and creating memorable visual experiences.

At Forty2Creative, that’s exactly what we set out to achieve.