Spice packaging designed for a crowded shelf

The challenge

Fourteen SKUs sharing one shelf bay. The previous design distinguished variants by colour alone, which failed under retail lighting and forced shoppers to read small type to find the one they wanted. Conversion suffered most among repeat buyers who knew exactly what they came for.

Our approach

We separated the brand block from the variant signal

A fixed masthead carries the brand consistently across every pack. Below it, a dedicated variant zone uses colour, an illustrated ingredient mark and a distinct type weight together — three redundant signals, so recognition survives poor lighting and partial occlusion.

We tested at realistic distance, not on screen

Every direction was printed at actual size and reviewed at 1.5 metres under warm retail lighting. Two shortlisted routes that looked excellent on a monitor collapsed into mush at distance and were cut immediately.

We designed the thumbnail as a separate problem

A pack that works on a shelf rarely works at 200 pixels on a marketplace listing. We produced a distinct e-commerce treatment with an enlarged variant signal, which meant the range stayed navigable in both channels.

The outcome

The range shipped across all fourteen SKUs with a shared production template, cutting artwork time for new variants from days to hours. Retail partners reported noticeably faster restocking, since staff could identify variants without reading labels.