Anthem | FIT | Mayr-Melnhof | Paragraph | Webb Scarlett

Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT), New York, N.Y.

Click an image to view fully interactive 3D models of each design.

For the undergraduates matriculating through FIT's Packaging Design Department, the standard end-of-semester dispersal of students mimics real-world design conditions. Like professionals who work creatively under a single company umbrella, but who are located in separate geographic offices, the students who undertook the Bilinski redesign challenge did so at a physical distance from each other.

"Certainly technology facilitated this," says Marianne Klimchuk, associate chairperson of FIT's Package Design Department. But it also meant that assembling as a team was a greater logistical challenge. The real test of the students' design mettle, however, came with the requirement to redesign an existing brand "where innovation and creativity are not necessarily the primary objectives," Klimchuk remarks. In other words, "Our students are taught to discern the equities in an existing package design. And even though you want to be innovative, you don't want to discard the existing value," she offers.

That said, part of the brainpower amassed to redesign and convey Bilinski's brand intended purposefully to retain some original design elements. "Even though the students could have scrapped the existing approach, they decided to maintain some of the original integrity," Klimchuk notes. At the same time, they were also motivated to create a fresh approach, with consistent elements across the varying products, using "tags" at the top to distinguish "Antibiotic Free" from "European Style" meat products, for instance.

There was also consensus that Bilinski's two separate but original logos needed redirection, Klimchuk says. "From a design standpoint, there was very little connecting the two brands to the same company. We didn't necessarily think that was the best approach for the client to take," she says. Klimchuk adds, "We wanted to unify the packaging structure and bring it in line with contemporary consumers."

The Packaging Design Department students purposefully retained original design elements of the Bilinski's brand while also creating a fresh approach, with consistent elements across the varying
products.