Animation by Nate Sjogren
LifeFuels
Visual Design - Packaging
As one of the leading startups in the beverage-tech industry: LifeFuels, with its flagship Smart Bottle and concentrated beverage Pods, began with the mission to help people feel their best from the inside out. After a year on the market and a tremendous amount of consumer engagement- opportunities emerged to rapidly expand our product offerings and pivot our focus to the contemporary athlete.
As a result, we needed a new labeling design system that aligned with our evolving function-focused consumer base, while being agile enough to accommodate for any combination of new or existing flavors and functions.
Design Team: Alex Mathov — Patrick Lyon — Rob Lawson-Shanks
Simplified, Flexible, and Function Focused
The original label design (left) allowed us to develop an understanding for what aspects of the Pod our users are most interested in. It became clear that the functional benefits and the ability to control the exact amount of these supplements was of most interest, while great flavors were a basic requirement. As such, we emphasized the functional call out and added an Icon system to represent the different functions, leaned on the use of color to identify flavor, and stripped down ornamentation to provide a cleaner “PDP” that could be identified quickly by a user in person and on marketing content.
Every Element
Considered
The most challenging aspect of this label is the small footprint and even smaller “PDP”. Balancing the spacing, height, and curvature required strict rules for the dynamic elements and careful consideration of placement to give the PDP some sense of breathing room and consistency as well as preventing secondary information from creeping into view.
Mapping The Hierarchy
The contemporary athlete takes a holistic approach to performance which includes daily wellness. As such, we defined two potential categories a Pod could fall into: DAILY Pods — which are formulated with vitamins and minerals for daily consumption, and BOOST Pods — formulated with higher concentrations intended for a specific goal; such as Focus before a critical event, or collagen to support tissue recovery.
Vibrant Colors Matched to Flavors
Every LifeFuels Pod is formulated with natural flavors, which was extremely influential when selecting color treatments. While we wanted to use saturated colors that would cater well to our heavily digital marketing and social media content; utilizing colors representative of each flavor palette, the flavor itself, and alluding to its intensity, was paramount. Additionally, each treatment needed to be unique which required consideration not only for the current spectrum of flavors but also any future products.
Icon Set Inspired by the Product: Concentrated Dispersion
The application of an iconography system on the otherwise minimal label adds another element to help differentiate similar Pods by their function. The system was designed to be flexible and cover some basic action groups that encompass every existing product, with room for additional SKUs in development. The design of the icons themselves were inspired by the way in which the product works: a dispense and dispersion of a concentrated entity into a larger volume. The halftone treatment also gives a dynamic energy to the icons which further support the newly cultivated athletic tone.
Campaign Launch Video
Animation: creative/art direction, concept & narrative, design, music & sound design selection by Nate Sjogren
