Grace. Fish wife. Brightland.
If youâve never heard of it, just pop into your local specialty store â youâre guaranteed to find some of these brands, with aesthetically pleasing packaging that makes you feel like youâre walking into your Instagram feed.
Gander helped build the Graza brand from scratch, an olive oil that comes in squeeze bottles. Source: GoPuff
Marked by bright colors, bold fonts, and creative illustrations, this style of packaging has now moved beyond specialty stores and into the aisles of major retailers.
âIf you walk into almost any major grocery store in the US, thereâs at least one product thatâs designed, if not two.â
Itâs Mike McVicar, co-founder of Gander, the Brooklyn-based design studio behind Graza, Magic Spoon, and a dozen other âviralâ brands.
I tracked him down after obsessing over Ganderâs visual style, and asked him about the latest trends in packaging design.
Unless heâs not a fan of following trends or virality â not surprising for such a difficult creative.
âWe ask all the time that our work is trendy and we have set a certain visual tone with our work, but we donât do it intentionally,â Mike confessed. âIt can feel restrictive and annoying sometimes.â
But they still point to why we see this phenomenon.
District Design Pendulum
Back in the late 90s and early 2000s, good design wasnât a priority for consumer packaged goods (CPG).
A package with a phone and a sticker that screams â33% less fatâ is the main idea, a style that Mike describes as âover the top, bad, and more.â
During the 2010s, branding design went to the other extreme â the blanding trend.
Packages are minimalistic and generic, often featuring sans serif fonts and pastel colors.
And now with the rise of social shopping, many brands are offering a dopamine-fueled, color-forward Instagram aesthetic.
Itâs also a renaissance of Y2K style, with bold colors and fun textures.
âThe pendulum has swung to âcan be fun again!'â Mike said.
Big brands also love this trend.
From Jell-O to 7UP, they are redesigning to call up dopamine, and create a visual identity that spreads fun and joy.
Lack of Trending Styles
The problem with this trend?
This has led some companies to prioritize âdoing it for the âgramâ when it comes to Gander.
âYou find brands that only have very decorative designs, or only it feels aesthetically appealing. Itâs not going to pay off for them in the long run, or even in the short run,â Mike said.
It is problematic for brands to copy what others are doing, or recreate trends, because:
- You assume that someone elseâs solution is your solution
- You will be easily replaced
- You are not focused on communicating your own brand value and differentiation to your customers
He also doesnât believe that the current dopamine packaging trend will last much longer.
Itâs a pendulum, after all.
Brand Differentiation Through Design
Back in 2015, Gander worked on the rebranding for Banza, a pasta made from chickpeas.
In contrast to the popular styles in the pasta aisle (think Barillaâs simplistic blue packaging), Gander opts for a bright and expressive style.
Source: Gander
Banza was one of the early brands to make a bold statement with packaging, impacting the food industry as a whole.
âOur ethos is to take alternative foods, and be the brand that breaks down what you want for gluten-free pasta,â says Mike.
And it worked.
Banza went from anonymous to one of the top pasta brands in the US. Currently in 25k retail locations nationally, including Target, Walmart and Costco.
Since then, Gander has helped many other CPG brands land on big box store shelves. Graza, whose design they helped build from the ground up, reached $48m+ in revenue and can be found in 13k+ locations.
Looking back at his big win, Mike offers three simple tips for any brand looking to get featured in design:
- Start your own story and history as a brand, instead of blindly following trends;
- Know who your customers are, what kind of world they live in aesthetically, and what makes them happy;
- Look at your competition, and see what opportunities fit your product and company that others havenât.
What Else Is Trending in CPG Design?
As anti-trendy as he is, Mike is passionate about certain trends â including ânext-level delicious food photographyâ in packages.
Transform âblehâ into âyumâ. Source: AdWeek
Youâd think itâs a no-brainer, but a decade ago, it wasnât mainstream to put high-quality food photos on packages.
âIt never prints right, it doesnât look very good, and the investment to make something really good can be difficult for small brands,â says Mike.
But the tide has shifted.
Influenced by social media, younger consumers prefer packaging that actually whets their appetite, and major food brands are trying to make their products look tastier.
Now itâs a trend that everyone can follow.