Spotlight: Promotional

Nita B. Creative Invents a Distinctive Line of Packages for Distinguished Jackie O Exhibit

Marshall Field's wished to capture the essence of the Jackie O exhibit with products and packages that replicated her sense of style and elegance.

An exhibition entitled Jacqueline Kennedy: The White House Years opened at Chicago's Field Museum to pay homage to Kennedy's sense of style and grace. The exhibit showcases more than 70 garments and accessories worn by Kennedy at sate events in America and abroad.

Marshall Field's co-sponsored the event and wished to capture the essence of the exhibit with products and packages to be featured at their Chicago State Street store. The Marshall Field's design team began by creating concepts for review by Caroline Kennedy Schlossberg and her husband, Edward. After one false start, Marshall Field's specialty buyer Meg Benson looked for a fresh perspective from Renita Breitenbucher at her firm, Nita B. Creative.

"It was a great collaborative effort from the very start," says Breitenbucher. The Nita B. Creative team simultaneously developed products and the graphic elements that would appear on the products and packages. "We were discussing what we liked best about each piece when it hit us," Breitenbucher explains. "Rather than trying to replicate the first lady's famous coats, dresses, and accessories, simple pencil sketches that represent the essence of their timeless elegance might be just what we were looking for."

Breitenbucher expanded here sketches to a wide array of product ideas, and worked to create packaging that also reflected Kennedy's style. For instance, the plate collection is sold in a round, hatbox-shaped container, and many items are wrapped in pink gros-grain ribbon. After an extensive search, Breitenbucher also located an illustrator, Virginia Johnson from Canada, who could transform the rough sketches into refined iconic elements.

This was going to be a limited run project from the start, but because of Jackie O's stature in U.S. society, it was assumed that many customers would retain the products and packages as collector's items. "It was important that the quality and craftsmanship reflected their potential value," Breitenbucher says.

Charged with overseeing production of the entire product line, Breitenbucher made sure each detail was perfect: from the embossed gloves atop hand-made stationery wardrobe boxes to the foil-stamped pillbox hats on the envelope seals to the hand-painted details on each French limoge piece. Even the tissue paper that carefully protects each product inside its box was specially designed to reflect the quality and style of items associated with Jackie O.