Packaging

That’s how long it takes the average person to read this sentence. It’s also how long it takes the average consumer to make a purchase decision. Just three seconds, standing in a grocery aisle, hesitating between two similar products. Three seconds that are repeated millions of times a day across the country, every day. That’s why packaging design is so vital to a brand’s success. Because average packaging gets ignored on-shelf. Because no brand has the luxury of explaining to a consumer why they should be chosen over the other brand sitting next to them. Because distinctive, bold, engaging packaging design can say more about your brand in three seconds than a Times Square billboard or 30 seconds on TV. Packaging is the physical bond between the brand and consumer; its design determines how strong that bond will be.

The best packaging design challenges conventions, rewrites category codes and seduces a new generation of consumers while reigniting bonds with existing ones. Our challenge is to balance the practical design needs (function, protection, storage, transportation) with the potential for human connection (form, concept, colour). Our responsibility is to find design solutions that minimize environmental impact. Eco-conception is a holistic approach to packaging design that rethinks everything from materials to sourcing to transportation in order to help brands improve their footprint. Every category assumption can be questioned. These questions lead to creative solutions that create an emotional impact in-store. Exactly where 80% of purchasing decisions are made.

With the largest design team in Canada, we know the value of collaboration. The challenge is how best to balance individual talent with collective expertise while maintaining our focus on the end result. Our process involves all stakeholders early and often to ensure that all relevant information (research, strategy, insight) is disseminated. It is genuinely transparent, designed to maximize the quality of input and consistently iterate forward. We don’t present design concepts at first. In fact, we don’t even present. We leave client stakeholders alone with the work, so that they can experience it in the same way a consumer would, without intervention or justification for the choices we’ve made. It’s not always easy, but it works. And we’ve got more than a thousand designs on shelves today to prove it.

• Brand diagnostic
• Brand strategy and positioning
• Product portfolio strategy / brand architecture
• Brand identity
• Retail and packaging design
• Eco-design
• Deployment plan
• Naming
• Shopper marketing
• Product design
• Production