Successfully integrating structural and graphic branding has proved challenging for many product manufacturers. “Do we start with graphics branding and then create a structure around it, or do we create a structure and then start the graphics exploration afterward?” This question is commonly asked at the beginning of the creative process.
The best answer I have found is “neither.” Successful packages are a seamless combination of structural form and function and graphic branding working together to support a common message to the consumer.
Why is a balance so difficult to achieve?
Structural designers tend to have industrial design backgrounds and they must be technically familiar with many complex manufacturing processes to be effective in structural branding. For this reason, in addition to the marketing team, they often interface with a company’s research and development team and operations.
On the other hand, graphic designers are often trained specifically in graphic design. They have little experience in structural manufacturing processes. They typically work directly with the brand manager and/or creative services group in communicating the brand attributes in the two dimensions of print.
The following example illustrates the need for seamless integration between structural and graphic design.
When Pepsico asked 4sight to develop designs to integrate its licensed Fido Dido character with its 7Up line of beverages worldwide, the project started with the graphics. Graphic designers had created Fido Dido as a fun-loving character with a unique life style. Structural designers worked closely with graphics designers to determine how to convey Fido Dido’s essence in bottles that would work in production. Two paths were selected: First was the literal interaction of the Fido Dido character with the bottle and second was an “empty canvas” approach that provided a “Fido-like” bottle that could be labeled in any way necessary to keep the character fresh while providing variety for the consumer.
The Fido interaction bottle combined the graphic imagery of Fido Dido hugging the bottle with structural changes to the bottle to support the character.
Understanding the technical parameters around creating pressurized glass bottles was critical to achieving the blend of “Fido fun” and the ability to manufacture the bottles.
The graphic and structural teams integrated the ACL printing, glass embossing, and sculpting essential to achieving the final look. The Fido Canvas bottle provides more options for the graphics team to integrate Fido Dido into the bottle. The bottle form is intended to be an easy grip in the way that “Fido would have designed it”—fun and cartoon-like in its overall form.
A partial shrink label allows views of the product in support of the “Think Clear” positioning while allowing Fido Dido to have fun around the 7Up logo. This approach also allowed the creation of eight initial label designs that provide product variety.
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- By Stuart Leslie,
President, 4sight Inc.
