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Conceptual Packaging - A Creative Type Company

Eureka Moments in Store Aisles Reveal How Small Innovations Can Resonate in Big Ways

by Marianne Klimchuk

As a packaging designer, there is nothing I take greater pleasure from than the eureka moments that happen when I come upon an exciting new packaging design. As professionals we hardly get the Show-N-Tell experience we had in grade school, but recently I have been pleased to discover eureka moments in unexpected places. It is remarkable how an exclusive feature that adds a distinguishing element to a packaging design, a new design layout, color, or typographic style that creates a fresh personality, or an innovative new product concept can have the power to stop us in our tracks — even the most critical among us.

The truly distinctive designs are the ones that have built on their graphic formula to communicate the uniqueness of the enclosed product by adding an exclusive design feature created solely for their product to define proprietary packaging design. Although most packaging designs possess proprietary features, it is that added spark that takes the design above and beyond the ordinary and creates an electric charge.

Proprietary packaging designs, clearly an essential component in the competitive retail environment, do not have to be big to make a difference. A small change in familiar design can make you take notice, incite a purchase, and ultimately impact sales. The towering cans of Monster Energy® with their colored pull-tabs can do just that. They look as though someone hand colored on the aluminum can. Each variety has a different tab color. I came upon this innovation while on the line in my local deli. The cans were positioned in an open refrigerator case and all that was visible were the tops. Numerous customers stopped to pick up the product and examine this new feature. How fresh: the colored pull-tabs created a great buzz and effectively grabbed consumer attention.

Ball Corporation and CanDO International Ltd. have taken color can tabs to a new level with their laser-incised capability, which offers proprietary brand reinforcement at the moment of consumption.

When I see a fresh typographic style, new graphic imagery, or new-fashioned color in a category, I get equally excited. Call me package design obsessed, but I remember exactly where I was when I saw the new Izze® Beverage for the first time. It was summertime, when life should be simple, pure, and uncomplicated. The graphic configuration of this bottle hit that mark. I bought a case and used the empty bottles as vases for flowers.

The new spray caps on cans of Febreze® air refresher are a great addition to the world of ergonomically designed packaging. Not until you look at this new feature do you stop to consider why we have put up with those poorly designed spray caps for so long. The design potential for this small feature was tremendous and yet, until Procter & Gamble took it on, who would have thought it could be such an attractive element of a packaging design? The color-coordinated frosted blue and pink nozzle not only fits comfortably in the hand, but the new functionality of this product adds to the total packaging design. Febreze hit the mark with a packaging design that no longer needs to be hidden under the sink.

The high technical advancements of shrink-sleeve packaging are evidenced in the great packaging design for Chocolate Moose. Certainly chocolate milk as a fun product has tremendous design potential but few examples in this category are as successful as this packaging design. This packaging design remains not only a great design but remains a first-rate, imaginative use of shrink film.

Although innovation and change are built into the business of packaging design, the strategic issues and challenges that surround remain: How will the consumer react? Will it perform properly? Will it contain, protect, and display the product appropriately? Can it be produced economically?

Years ago, the limitations and lack of flexibility in packaging equipment hindered the design process. With the constantly evolving technologies, however, the possibilities are endless. Designers should push their creative minds within the framework of the marketing strategy and not fight preconceived restrictions. From the small proprietary features to the illustrious designs, designer, manufacturer, and supplier can work together towards revolutionary packaging designs. These are the ones that stop us in our tracks.

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