Packaging Winners at Expo West
My editor and I took a deep breath as we dove into the organized chaos that was the Natural Products Expo West in March.
Our mission was to find innovative packaging designs at an event that had almost 4 thousand exhibits and countless more products.
We fought our way through 52,000 retailers, manufacturers, functional ingredient suppliers and industry professionals to attend the country’s largest natural, organic, and healthy products trade show.
It seems most natural product manufacturers put more stock into what is in their product than how it looks. The 57 billion dollar a year natural product market has a fondness for the color green and simplicity.
According to Ted Mininni, a brand/packaging consultant, natural product packaging should continue to extend brand values by:
• Sharing a story
• Focusing on its commitment
• Creating an emotional response
• Being as minimal as possible.
Minimal seemed to be the best choice of words for most product packaging at the show but there were a few standouts.
Hands down the most exciting product packaging was fragrance and body care manufacturer Pacifica. The packaging is a complex and warm “visual dance” that took a giant step away from the mainstream.
According to the company…”The cultural kaleidoscope that is Pacifica packaging reflects the fusion of a passion for clean, modern design, love of travel, and admiration for countries and cultures all over the world. Equally captivating on shop shelves and in homes, each of the company’s exotic scents is represented by its own signature pattern.”
Pacifica’s 5 categories of fragrance include herbs, florals, fruits, spices and woods and resins. Each package represents the essence of what is inside the product. The feelings the packaging evokes are passionate and rich. They range from dark warm Mexican cocoa to sweet Tuscan Blood Orange. My favorite is the Waikiki Pikake which means peacock and jasmine in Hawaiian.
According to legend, the pikake flower was named by Hawaii’s beloved Princess Kaiulani, who adorned herself in necklaces of the sweetly scented white flowers and compared its exotic beauty to the peacocks that roamed her garden.
Another winner for innovative packaging in design is Ybone water for kids. Ybone is the first in a new category of “developmental drinks” for children, which provides vitamins and minerals essential to growth. Ywater packaging is considered the beginning of the next generation of green. Not only are the bottles 100% recyclable, they are reusable as a creative developmental aid.
The company has extended the life cycle of the packaging by making the bottles reusable as toys. Yknots are connectors that join bottles together inspiring creativity in children. Children can create shapes that resemble molecules, robots or puppies. It also teaches a lesson that packaging has a value.
Another great packing design for children’s products comes in the form of a hippo/turtle hybrid creature.
Hippo & Turtle Organics is vegan body care for children. The packaging design of a turtle body with a hippo face represents the true story of a baby hippo named Owen who was orphaned during the Indian Ocean tsunami in 2004.
Owen was rescued from a river and taken to a wildlife sanctuary where he befriended a 130 year-old turtle named Mzee. The hippo and turtle soon became inseparable and continue to baffle scientists with their unlikely companionship. Experts say they have even developed a way to communicate.
The warm chocolate brown packaging with electric green illustration are both inviting and calming for children and adults.
Finally sometimes the biggest treasures come in the smallest of packages. Nadina’s Cremes come in beautiful handmade ceramic jars, beaded tins and wood displays made by the developmentally challenged. The beaded containers are dazzlingly gorgeous and can be used again and again when refilled with product.
Nadina has created reusable packaging that will last for years as works of art.
>Written by d/visible contributor Tracy Hammond.
