Graza. Fishwife. Brightland.Graza. Fishwife. Brightland. If you\u2019ve never heard of them, just walk into a local specialty store \u2014 you\u2019re guaranteed to spot some of these brands, with packaging so aesthetically pleasing they make you feel like walking inside an Instagram feed. Gander helped build the Graza brand from scratch, an olive oil that comes in a squeeze bottle. Source: GoPuff Marked by bright colors, bold fonts, and creative illustrations, this style of packaging is now moving beyond specialty stores and into big retail aisles. \u201cIf you walk into almost every major retail chain grocery store in the US, there would be at least one product that we designed, if not two.\u201d That was Mike McVicar, co-founder of Gander, a Brooklyn-based design studio behind Graza, Magic Spoon, and a dozen of other \u201cviral\u201d brands. I tracked him down after obsessing over Gander\u2019s visual style, and asked him about the latest trends in packaging design. Except he\u2019s not a fan of following trends or virality \u2014 not surprising for a die-hard creative. \u201cWe get all the time that our work is trendy and that we’ve set a certain visual tone with our work, but we don\u2019t intentionally do that,\u201d Mike confessed. \u201cIt can feel limiting and annoying sometimes.\u201d But he still shared his take on why we\u2019re seeing this phenomenon. The Design Pendulum Back in the late 90s and early 2000s, good design wasn\u2019t a priority for consumer packaged goods (CPG). Packages with call-outs and stickers that scream \u201c33% less fat\u201d were the mainstream, a style that Mike endearingly described as \u201cover the top, ugly, and kind of extra.\u201d When the 2010s rolled around, branding design went to the other extreme \u2014 the blanding trend. Packages became minimalistic and generic, often featuring sans serif fonts and pastel colors. And now with the rise of social shopping, many brands are catering to the dopamine-charged, color-forward Instagram aesthetic. It\u2019s also a renaissance of the Y2K style, with bold colors and playful textures. \u201cThe pendulum has swung toward \u2018it can be fun again!\u2019\u201d Mike said. Big brands love this trend, too. From Jell-O to 7UP, they\u2019re redesigning to dial up the dopamine, and creating a visual identity that spreads fun and joy. The Downside to A Trending Style The problem with this trend? It has led some companies to prioritize \u201cdoing it for the \u2018gram” when they come to Gander. \u201cYou find brands that just have very decorative design, or only feel interesting aesthetically. It won’t pay off for them in the long run, or even in the short run,\u201d Mike said. It\u2019s problematic for brands to emulate what everyone else is doing, or recreating a trend, because: You\u2019re assuming that someone else’s solution is your solution You\u2019ll be easily replaceable You\u2019re not focusing on communicating your own brand values and differentiation to customers He also doesn\u2019t believe the current dopamine packaging trend will stay for that much longer. It\u2019s a pendulum, after all. Differentiate Brands Through Design Back in 2015, Gander worked on the rebranding for Banza, a pasta made from chickpeas. Contrary to the popular style on the pasta aisle back then (think Barilla\u2019s simplistic blue packaging), Gander went for a bright and expressive style. Source: Gander Banza was one of the early brands to make a bold statement with packaging, which impacted the food industry as a whole. \u201cOur ethos was to take an alternative food, and turn it into a brand that has subverted what was expected for gluten-free pasta,\u201d Mike said. And it worked. Banza went from anonymity to one of the top pasta brands in the US. It\u2019s now in 25k retail locations nationally, including Target, Walmart and Costco. Since then, Gander\u2019s helped many other CPG brands get on big retail shelves. Graza, whose design they helped build from scratch, hit $48m+ in revenue and can be found in 13k+ locations. Looking back at their big wins, Mike gave three simple tips for any brand who want to stand out through design: Start with your story and history as a brand, instead of following trends blindly; Understand who your customer is, what kind of world they live in aesthetically, and what\u2019s pleasing to them; Look at your competition, and see what opportunities align with your product and company that others aren\u2019t doing yet. What Else Is Trending in CPG Design? As anti-trend as he is, Mike did get excited about one particular trend \u2014 the inclusion of \u201cnext-level delicious food photography\u201d on packages. The \u201cbleh\u201d to \u201cyum\u201d transformation. Source: AdWeek You\u2019d think it\u2019s a no-brainer, but a decade ago, it wasn\u2019t mainstream to put high-quality food photography on the packages. \u201cIt never prints right, it doesn’t look that great, and the investment of creating something really good can be difficult for small brands,\u201d Mike said. But the tide has shifted. Influenced by social media, younger consumers prefer packaging that actually stir up their appetite, and major food brands are trying to make their products look extra tasty. Now that’s a trend we can all get behind. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Graza. Fishwife. Brightland.Graza. Fishwife. Brightland. If you\u2019ve never heard of them, just walk into a local specialty store \u2014 you\u2019re guaranteed to spot some of these brands, with packaging so aesthetically pleasing they make you feel like walking inside an Instagram feed. Gander helped build the Graza brand from scratch, an olive oil that comes<\/p>\n