Design Resource Center

Naperville, Ilinois • www.drcchicago.com

Design Resource Center (DRC) looked for inspiration in Citrus Magic's history of creating natural, citrus-based products for the consumer. Citrus represents the spring of life and their goal was to increase brand success by reinforcing the brand promise, utilizing a unique shape to differentiate on an intuitive and visual level. The consistent shape and graphic elements achieved this with a complete "symbol" that represents the key attributes of Citrus Magic—earth-friendly, organic and natural, refreshing, and clean.

When looking closely at premium household cleaning products at retail, DRC principal and creative director John Norman noticed an ironically cluttered category. "It's kind of an oxymoron—you'd think it would be 'clean,'" Norman says. He believes the DRC-redesigned packages would be a breath of fresh air in the category. "It just jumps out at you," says Norman, "but it's not so unique that it's odd."

In defining the real essence of the brand and the products' effectiveness, Norman explains, "It's really about cleaning and getting back to a natural state." In nature, elements work in harmony—and it was important for the DRC solution to do the same. The dominant leaf motif defines the soft, smooth, flowing structure. The harmonious design elements are inviting and encourage consumers to pick up, hold, and examine the natural-looking package.

The DRC Makeover team feels the graphics are friendly, approachable, fresh, and eye-catching. The "sunburst" effect of the bright orange citrus sun is reserved for the brand wordmark, making this area special and allowing the brand identity to stand on its own. This area is both inviting and strong to break through retail shelf clutter, to be compelling from a range of viewing distances, and to connect with shoppers on an emotional level.

The overall, consistent effect of the new branding and packaging is contemporary and clean—but not commoditized. "We really cleaned up the information hierarchy," says Norman. The brandmark provides a proprietary, national brand feel, and the sunburst background color could change according to the scent of the product within. The product descriptor is at the top, and the "100% Natural" claim in the arch above the sunburst is central but secondary.

The DRC approach to better packaging function focused on creating a universal ergonomic shape that is easier to hold and use. The curved shape of leaf fits nicely into the curve of a user's hand. For the carpet and room odor eliminator, they also created an easy to use dial for metering the amount of powder. A translucent, non-printed area allows the consumer to see the exact amount of product that is left at all times. For the solid air freshener, DRC created a more visually appealing solution so consumers will now gladly display—rather than hide—in a standing or sitting position.

DRC focused their sustainability efforts on greatly increasing the recyclability of the packages and components. Changing from green as closure color increases reuse from recycled products, since less product of the product is pigmented. PET, HDPE, and PP are the resins deliberately sought for commercial recycling. They recommend virgin PET vs. RPET (recycled PET) for two reasons: 1) It is very difficult to control the color of RPET 2) It is difficult to know how many heat treatments it has been through, and what chemicals it has been exposed to.

DRC discovered that by examining the relation of the packages to each other, there were production efficiencies to be gained. By using a vertical labeling process for the solid air freshener, DRC increased line efficiency so all products can now run on the same labeling line. For the air freshener, DRC changed the overall product package to a pump, therefore increasing line efficiency with a standard fill process.