15 steps on how to work with an agency.

Some 30 years ago I was involved in a design project for Nestlé New Zealand. The sales of 100g cooking chocolate bars were stagnating and the brand manager needed to do something to get sales going again.

…to successfully visualize and verbalize an idea. 1st stage: DESIGN the key properties, i.e. the visual and verbal identity for the brand or product to be used in ALL media. 2nd stage: Execute the chosen idea in several media as for instance packaging, print advertising, website, POS material, TV or outdoor. 3rd stage: Design the final execution of this idea for the package which will ALWAYS be the main medium for the identity. 4th stage: Prepare a one-page identity sheet with a short explanatory text. 5th stage: UPDATE, SIMPLIFY AND AMPLIFY.

Being in the package design business, obviously all materials are interesting to me as it all depends upon the product to be packed. A metal can feels colder than a drink carton, a great wine cannot be in PET, but must be in glass, etc. Born in the Swedish forest, the cardboard and thus also the paper have become my favourites for the simple reason that the products I have dealt with are mostly packed in this material, i.e. frozen food, chocolate, breakfast cereals, pet food, etc.

In order to achieve maximal impact for least money is, as this article explains, not a complicated matter. However, in practice, very few brands achieve this today as the communication is split up between different units, departments or managers. Furthermore, a communication coordinator with decision rights is seldom at hand.

There is a saying within the Nestlé world that goes something like this: “Nescafé is always Nescafé because Nescafé is not Nescafé any more…!”

In 2010 Poland celebrates the Year of Chopin. There are numerous art events going on and the tracks  of the great composer is seen everywhere. Joanna Troszynska has sent a bottle etiquette with Chopin, designed by Andrzej Pagowski.
What’s Lars Wallentin’s comment on the “Cisowianka” bottle?
- Nice design but not a great design.. too foreseeable, no [...]

How would you package a series of products for professional hair colour? By showing every nuance of hair from peroxide white to goth black? The packaging of the new hair colour product Inoa from l’Oréal is nothing like that. The TDBdesign agency used a mean green and restrained artwork.
– Elegance is the design key of [...]

Those of you who were lucky enough to get tickets to the World Cup soccer games in South Africa recieved your tickets and accompanying information in a clever slider package. Remember? Well, here’s the rare package again.
This is the first entry to be commented by Lars Wallentin in his Pack Attack campaign. Sure it’s borderline [...]

Some brands are for ever linked to one and the same product and it is unthinkable to use it for another product, even in the same category. Other brands have the capacity to be stretched. One can also speak of brand extension, but I prefer the term “leverage”.