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backstage at biscuiteers
This summer, we’ve collaborated with the Natural History Museum to bring to life in biscuit form, a collection of hand-iced marvels of the museum.
This exciting new discovery is complete with gifts inspired by the prehistoric and present day, and will delight any dinosaur or nature enthusiast.
To mark this exciting launch, we spoke to our Senior Biscuit Designer, Rachael who shared the story behind the creation of the collection. ![]()
What inspired the Biscuiteers x Natural History Museum collection designs? Of course, visiting the Natural History Museum is the best way to explore and gather inspiration. It's an amazing place as you can spend hours really delving into different collections. I love to see things in the physical form as it creates a sense of scale and awe, for example the incredible Hope blue whale skeleton and monumental Dippy dinosaur. By studying specimens up close you appreciate the tiny details such as on fossil marks and butterfly wing patterns.
I also carefully looked through the guides and illustrations sent by the Natural History Museum team. They included lots of different styles and representations which I used as a starting point to translate into our own Biscuiteers style.
I referred to their Alphabet Composition Pack which acted as a glossary during our initial design stages, it was an A-Z of natural history in illustrative form. The ‘Day At The Museum’ pack had more fun and quirky icons which helped us explore alternative style and colour palettes. ![]()
What does the biscuit design process look like? It’s a bit like a jigsaw puzzle to start with! I start off in Adobe Illustrator, moving and changing things around, working out how the biscuit shapes and sizes fit in the tin layout.
Then I work on the icing process, drawing out the outline and flood icing areas, adding colour and extra little detailing. The detailing was my favourite stage, I enjoy adding the finishing touches and making sure the creatures are recognisable. The tiny teeth on the T-Rex, the fluffy hair on the mammoth and Hope’s big smile were all satisfying additions!
I often trial a few colour options to see what mood and feeling different palettes create. The palette started off quite bright and bold, but later changed to a more natural version, keeping some cheerful shades of orange and blue.
Once the digital version is signed off I move on to hand-icing the designs. We always show the icers to get extra feedback, they like a sneaky peak of what is in the pipeline and they were really excited about these designs! ![]()
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How did you and the team choose the final designs? Initially I had the idea of having the Natural History Museum building as a biscuit, but then we came up with the concept of having the tin as the building, and all the creatures as biscuits inside.
We think about the biscuit tin artwork when designing the biscuits so they complement each other as an especially considered gift. In the tin there are a variety of designs that appeal to everyone. Dinosaurs are a winner with all people and ages, we love them too, so it was essential to have one on each layer of the biscuit tin.
We wanted to give the famous Dippy a special feature so made him into one of our larger letterboxes where he was accompanied by his favourite plants to eat, Conifer and Gingko leaves. ![]()
Our brand new Natural History Museum Collection is available to order now. See for yourself what this latest addition to our biscuit portfolio is like, and shop here. ![]()
From Paper to Production: Biscuiteers x Natural History Museum Collection
02 August 2023
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4 Mins
This exciting new discovery is complete with gifts inspired by the prehistoric and present day, and will delight any dinosaur or nature enthusiast.
To mark this exciting launch, we spoke to our Senior Biscuit Designer, Rachael who shared the story behind the creation of the collection.
I also carefully looked through the guides and illustrations sent by the Natural History Museum team. They included lots of different styles and representations which I used as a starting point to translate into our own Biscuiteers style.
I referred to their Alphabet Composition Pack which acted as a glossary during our initial design stages, it was an A-Z of natural history in illustrative form. The ‘Day At The Museum’ pack had more fun and quirky icons which helped us explore alternative style and colour palettes.
There was a lot to inspire me, the difficult part was narrowing it down to what would fit in the tin!
Then I work on the icing process, drawing out the outline and flood icing areas, adding colour and extra little detailing. The detailing was my favourite stage, I enjoy adding the finishing touches and making sure the creatures are recognisable. The tiny teeth on the T-Rex, the fluffy hair on the mammoth and Hope’s big smile were all satisfying additions!
I often trial a few colour options to see what mood and feeling different palettes create. The palette started off quite bright and bold, but later changed to a more natural version, keeping some cheerful shades of orange and blue.
Once the digital version is signed off I move on to hand-icing the designs. We always show the icers to get extra feedback, they like a sneaky peak of what is in the pipeline and they were really excited about these designs!
We think about the biscuit tin artwork when designing the biscuits so they complement each other as an especially considered gift. In the tin there are a variety of designs that appeal to everyone. Dinosaurs are a winner with all people and ages, we love them too, so it was essential to have one on each layer of the biscuit tin.
We wanted to give the famous Dippy a special feature so made him into one of our larger letterboxes where he was accompanied by his favourite plants to eat, Conifer and Gingko leaves.