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Kendall Ross
Seattle, WA

Kendall Ross principal Tim Ross tried to look objectively at the current Fresh Body Market packages and wondered: Would a prospective customer know instantly what this product was for? The team at Kendall Ross thought there was a big disconnect between the actual product and the packaging—that even though it was clever packaging, it wasn't strong enough to be truly successful in the retail market.

David Kendall, the other principal of the firm, adds: "You have to ask yourself: 'Where is that package going to reside?' You purchase it off the shelf, but it actually exists in your life at some other place, and it needs to be appropriate for that place. For example, the product that was packaged like a jug of milk is not something I'd want to keep where I take a bath. To me, and I think to most consumers, it was not very sophisticated or appropriate."

Kendall Ross wanted to create something that celebrates the body and the nourishing of it. They wanted to accomplish this by showing not only rich imagery of the body, but also align it with equally lush and rich imagery of key product ingredients. The look they were trying to achieve was an allure that customers would regard as essential to have to look beautiful.

Inner beauty, pampering, and luxury are the emotions that were to be invoked by the design team. Ross comments: "This is a special product. It shouldn't be treated like some kind of skin-scrubbing soap. This is something that makes you feel wonderful when you get out of the shower. This is something that you'll want to put on again tomorrow and have become part of your routine that makes your life that much better."

Simplicity was a key element in the creation of the packaging. Keeping the packages minimal and elegant was important to combat the crowded and cluttered competition on the shelves in all stores. "One of the things that we were striving to achieve was a simple design language that reflected a certain type of healthy appeal by avoiding a lot of flourish or complexity," says Ross. "It feels like the product is cleaner, fresher, and more in line with people's mindsets who are buying these types of products."

The design team created a "universal" look to span the interests of different backgrounds and ages, and they designed a broad concept that could fit many different categories. The thread that holds all of these categories together is that the customers want to feel and look good. "This presented a challenge with how we approached the photography because we wanted to make sure that the image was relatively universal and not specific to a certain race, age, or even gender," says Kendall. The packages have a black and white, silver, gelatin print style to make its appeal more universal.

To get the package to stand out on the shelves, Kendall Ross wanted to give the packaging a sense of a story. "The story that we wanted to convey was that we wanted to celebrate the body and show the nourishing of it," says Ross. "People buy stories just as much as they buy products."

They also wanted to give the products a sense of being "hand-made." The ribbon that crosses the top not only serves as a freshness seal, but it also implies that this is a special product that someone may have created by hand. "That is important when you're talking about the human body and things that you put in or on it," claims Kendall. "You really want to feel like it's hand-made rather than machine-made. That works really well with the different fruits because they can be hand-picked or hand-harvested. No one wants to put a chemical concoction on his or her body. So the idea is that these are all small batches produced singularly by five people. We worked really hard to create that story as well."

Lastly, one of the strategies used to make the packages stand out was the concept of contrast. It is a strong design element that allows products and images to pop when placed among other bland ones on the shelves. Kendall says: "We try to combine refined simplicity with strong, bold contrast as an overall design approach. This project was distinctive of that."