What Does it Take to Design a Great Portion Pack?

Apparently, it takes a milk company, and not a packaging giant. One of the best portion pack executions out there there is by the largest U.S. milk company, Dean Foods.

Package Usability Rules!

What’s there not to like? An easy to handle form which fits in the hand nicely with beautiful and functional form. Larger bottom prevents tipping and spillage. In case you were to pour milk out of this on-the-go portion pack, there is no gulping whatsoever, thanks to its large opening and neck dimensions.

But wait, there is more. The generous opening size and a thoughtfully designed lip area shows the attention to detail that went into this package for sensory appeal.

The designers did not stop there either, when they designed the cap, they made sure that cap usability was there as well with a maximized grip diameter. As a result, this package is easily openable by children, adults, and even by aging populations with deteriorating dexterity.
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Walmart decided to join Amazon in November 2011 in converting to consumer friendly packaging. This was covered by Bloomberg news back then. Unfortunately, after a year-and-a-half, it seems that wrap-rage is still alive and well with no relief in sight.
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You may remember the Swagger shower gel package we covered previously.

Art & Design International, the Korean design agency behind Swagger, sent us Swagger’s new hair gel package design. What’s interesting about this package is its choice of material, which is aluminum, and it’s dual color UV printing.
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We have previously reported hydrophobic applications and non-stick coatings in packaging. One of the up and coming companies in the hydrophobic field is NeverWet. Their story has been covered by Lancaster Online.

They have been demonstrating their impressive coating in electronic applications, as seen in video below. We are hoping for some packaging applications to come out this promising company as well.

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Here is amazing video for a non-stick coating from MIT showing how a ketchup bottle would perform with this coating. The Fast Company article provides more detail.

©2012 PackageRepublic.com. All Rights Reserved.

Following our previous article about package repurposing, here are some additional ideas. Check these out.

The hygienna creates a portable bidet out of PET bottles, and is available in teal or pink for $9.99.
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Pierini Partners sent us their most recent package creation for Rexona for the Latin American market. Inspired by comic book superheroes, the package design integrates an interesting ripple structure into the grip area together with a matching graphic design. A great and seamless execution.

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Here is a video of a smart jug that detects stale milk via mashable.com. Now only if we could incorporate it into the package itself.

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©2012 PackageRepublic.com. All Rights Reserved.

QR (Quick Response) code technology has been around for over 10 years. In the last few years, it has been increasingly used in advertising and communication as an aid to dispense information about a specific product, or promotion.

Due to the monumental increase in smart phone deployment and usage in the recent years, the use of QR code technology has also increased in leaps and bounds. While there has been literally thousands of examples of the use of this technology in packaging, few stand out. The Cellar Key, a joint initiative between Scanbuy and Lion Nathan Wine Group is perhaps a promising example of this kind application in food and beverage packaging.

By scanning the QR code on the neck tag of a wine bottle, a consumer can easily access rich multimedia content related to that wine. This works well at the point-of-sale as well as post-sale. In products like wine which have a strong sensory and emotional connection to the consumer, taking a virtual tour of the winery, reading accolades, virtually meeting the winemaker, and exploring food and wine pairings directly from your smartphone can become an important part of the value proposition.
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We came across a few great repurposing ideas for packages. Check these out.

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