Atomica Design Group

Morrisville, PA
www.atomicadesign.com

The Atomica Design Group developed a retro design approach for the Dashing Diva Makeover Challenge. The desire was to emulate the era of classic movie stars in the '40s or '50s, and the glitz and glamour of the golden age of cinema became the benchmark. The designs are meant to capture the theatricality and dramatic impact of that lifestyle, because many consumers today still define glamour in those terms and in those fashions.

After category research in stores like Target and Ulta, the Atomica Makeover team tried to define a specific prototypical purchaser of the product. They found inspiration in New York fashion hipness and the glamour of martini bars. They thought: "Wouldn't many users of Dashing Diva products be fans of Sex and the City?"

Joe DiPalma, president of Atomica, gave five different designers the same Makeover Challenge task to see what variations they might come up with. In essence, they all grappled with the same question: "In our minds—and in consumers' minds—what is a diva?" The agency's fulltime trend-spotter helped identify what diva characteristics and fashions could be both classic and modern.

Though the brief was to create a unified brand extension line that was clean and professional, Atomica delved even deeper into the 20th century for classic, timeless inspiration and found Victorian lacy accents and elements that might be reminiscent of Varga paintings. "We wanted something functional and lasting, not something that next year would be out of fashion, " says DiPalma.

The diva that Atomica ended up with was a sexy, confident woman full of showmanship. The tall torsos and thin waists of the package designs convey the personality of the users as well as the identity of the Dashing Diva brand. The redesigned hands of the Dashing Diva are "holding up" a floating, glowing diamond, an eternal symbol of diva-ness now infused with a new age sensibility.

The curlicue accents are reminiscent of mid-20th century advertising and promotional design, but the engraved accents have a secondary function. The curlicues in the tops of the bottles are engraved in a textured hard plastic for a classy impression, but also to make them easy to locate with just the fingers in a modern Dashing Diva devotee's purse.

The Atomica team decided not to discard the hard-won and distinctive typeface of the Dashing Diva logo. Quite to the contrary, they felt the previous package designs were disjointed typographically. Instead of reinventing the wheel, they used the same type treatment universally on the front panel of the packages.

DiPalma explains that the platinum shades of Atomica's designs complement the established signature Dashing Diva magenta. The design team incorporated the magenta in a more tasteful way, as an accent that is not overwhelming. "By doing that, it would actually make it'pop' more," says DiPalma. On all the packages, the magenta appears to glow or emanate from the base of the product or from behind the package.

DiPalma admits the borrowed affinity to liquor bottles—especially modern vodka bottles that attempt to have images and colors filter through the product. Similarly, the frosted-glass impact of the custom plastic bottles creates an effervescent feel that invites touching. These effects would be achieved through screen printing when possible, with spot printing of the bottoms to create the glow, but clear label designs could also produce the same effect.