All product brands have a predictable, costly point of failure.
The visual identity, physical packaging, and digital motion design of a particular product brand have been separated into three completely unconnected groups which results in a chaotic and ugly visual presentation of product brand identity.
An example of this would be a folding carton that is printed in a color profile that is completely different than the color profiles used in eCommerce 3D renderings.
Furthermore, the Instagram Reel of the product has created an exaggerated and distorted visual effect on the well-crafted logo that was originally designed by the logo creator.
The overall experience of unboxing the product is therefore disconnected from the digital experience of the customer purchasing the product.
This disconnect causes distrust among consumers for the product.
When a business divides visual identity design into separate teams of different vendors, it causes the company to lose brand equity.
By establishing a single creative team that manages every aspect of the brand (including the physical products), companies can create a rhythm of developing the brand architecture, designing the physical packaging, and creating kinetic typography for every digital and physical touchpoint within the consumer journey.
The core benefits of consolidated creative operations
Managing multiple vendors for the visual identity of a product creates an enormous amount of operational friction.
In contrast, consolidating creative operations allows businesses to address structural inefficiencies before they negatively impact the bottom line.
Unified design language integration
With only one creative partner like Shuka.design, the company is able to ensure that there is an exact color match, typography scaling, and brand voice present across both the physical retail shelf and the digital retail environment.
Because the same group of art directors is responsible for overseeing all customer touchpoints, the cross-channel consistency remains intact.
Eliminating the cost of communication
By consolidating production efforts under a single creative partner, companies save on the costs associated with redundant project management.
As a result, internal marketing teams do not need to be a middleman between separated creative teams.
Increased speed of market deployment
Rapidly changing technology categories and physical product lines require an immediate connection between physical and digital platforms.
By means of development of packaging dielines and motion storyboards concurrently, you can launch your products on the designated date without the lengthy, painful delays that could otherwise cost sales.
Technical precision
Members of your team combine their ability to create physical packages with their knowledge of how those packages affect digital lighting in motion graphics.
This gives the team an understanding of how the design of a package will affect the way a product is portrayed in motion, which allows them to review no individual design element in isolation.
The unexpected cost of having several vendors
Using an independent graphic designer, an independent packaging designer, and an independent motion studio may seem to make sense on paper, but you will wind up paying much more than you planned to.
- All three of these vendors have their own scopes of work.
- Each vendor bills independently.
- Each delivers work in standard format.
Unfortunately, the reality is far less streamlined than you might think.
As soon as a designer's work is not coordinated with the other vendors, hidden costs begin to accumulate.
The multiplier effect of managing complex projects
As the various disciplines become disjointed, the amount of time and effort spent managing the project increases dramatically.
Internal project leads are often left with overlapping timelines, requiring them to navigate multiple rounds of feedback.
Because every design element must be reviewed and approved by three separate groups, the time it takes to produce the final product can grow exponentially.
When a visual designer is unable to capture a key visual component and an interactive designer is unable to generate the appropriate aesthetic for that product, both vendors' production schedules fall behind their original timelines.
The result?
The overall project loses momentum as each vendor gives up the baton to another.
Loss of brand identity
As an end-user progresses through the customer journey, inconsistencies in the way the brand appears visually will begin to show up.
A packaging designer may select a specific Pantone colour to use for a particular package that is only part of the primary colour scheme, thereby creating visual confusion.
This confusion is made worse when an animator creates a motion graphic using a graphic design component that doesn't take the original logo graphic into account, such as bending the form of the logo.
Over time, the brand identity becomes weaker and more diluted through the combined actions of multiple vendors creating their own disparate decisions regarding the final look of the brand.
Synchronous launch schedules & cannot be overemphasized
Physical production accuracy must be absolute.
3D rendering vendors must pause indefinitely until they receive final physical dielines confirmation, which results in delayed retail windows.
An agency that consolidates all related production efforts will manage these complex workflows across multiple parallel tracks can guarantee that retail launch dates are protected.
Shared visual DNA between motion and packaging
Digital and physical products are seldom seen as being part of an integrated design process by traditional marketing professionals.
However, as experts in the industry recognize, both forms of expression are two very different representations of the same underlying visual language.
Translating the limitations of the physical into the energy of the digital
As a designer creates a corrogated shipper box, they establish the manner in which text or graphics will be wrapped around the corner edges of the actual box.
A designer will also dictate the way that the foil stamping has been affected by ambient retail lighting.
A motion graphic designer will also have to consider the same limitations when developing a moving digital version of that same brand.
The hydro turmeric bottle of the premium hydration brand must feel naturally connected to the TikTok reveal of the bottle.
Pipeline connecting packaging to movement
When the same creative entity designs both platforms for the digital version, the digital version automatically inherits the weight and timing of the physical packaging.
The unboxing sequence provides a significant basis of the digital transition.
Static imagery becomes a unified experience across all consumer marketing.
Additionally, the physical packaging inherits the timing and theatrical reveal of the moving images of the product.
Therefore, the brand becomes an integrated and cohesive living system.
Industries creating structured integrated capabilities
Certain vertical partnership areas will expose the downside of not integrating design capabilities between products and brands faster than others.
Consumer packaged goods as the truth of omnichannel
Store shelves are covered in consumer packaged goods and smartphones are filled with images of consumer packaged goods simultaneously.
A customer can purchase groceries by using a scanner app, view a product unboxing video on YouTube, and later that night find a recipe using an Instagram reel.
Brands should ensure that their customer purchasing experience is as seamless as possible.
When a customer sees the kinetic typography in a promotional video, it should match the way the product is displayed on the store shelf.
If there is a mismatch between these two presentation styles, the customer's purchasing loop will be broken instantly.
Direct-to-consumer beauty and wellness
Stories that engage the senses have a significant impact on cosmetics and wellness brands' ability to convert consumers into customers.
The feel of premium quality paperstock, the precise choreography of the product unboxing, and the ease of learning how to use the product through digital tutorials creates a cohesive story.
Disconnecting and fragmented touchpoints creates a negative perception of the brand. Many fast-growing DTC Brands have great online images but use plain retail boxes.
An integrated agency can help brands bridge the physical and digital divide to create a unified image of the brand at retail, consistent with how it appears on mobile phones.
Innovative technologies
SaaS, or Software as a Service, and FinTech products require an entirely different strategic foundation than traditional retail products.
B2B SaaS brands need to establish a new visual identity that conveys authority, stability and seamless integration with the enterprise.
Because of the relatively long procurement cycles for software purchases, the brand voice must carry through from dense developer documentation to animated representations of the product at Tradeshows.
The brand architect must create a framework for the design of the digital assets of the software product that allows the developer to create complex dashboards and tells a high-level marketing story without conflict.
For FinTech, at this time, security through cryptography and regulatory compliance are the only important currencies.
Users need to have a level of trust in the brand before providing their bank account information.
Therefore, the visual elements of the FinTech product must communicate a sense of institutional credibility along with modern accessibility.
Finally, the existing aesthetics must transition successfully between the mobile trading interface and the printed pamphlet provided to potential investors.
The success or failure of FoodTech and rapid delivery businesses depends heavily on their ability to deliver quickly.
The brand’s image or identity has to be the same on all fronts; from the jacket worn by a rider to the loading screen of an app and to the bag in which food is packaged.
Criteria for assessing agencies who provide brand design services
Many agencies claim to be “full-service” and can handle all aspects of a brand, but executing structural packaging and motion digital design at the same time is quite uncommon.
Scrutinizing the agency's portfolio
Request case studies to demonstrate that the agency has executed both together at the same time.
Look for physical packaging and animation case studies that show how the typography layout of physical pouches affected the way that the product is animated to reveal its contents.
If the agency shows physical packaging in one area of their portfolio and motion design in another separate part of their portfolio, it indicates that they work in silos.
Understanding dielines and manufacturing processes
Motion design gives creative freedom to design whatever you want without restrictions, whereas an actual factory will only allow you to print to the limitations of that particular factory's equipment.
It is vital for a creative partner to understand how to create a printable design, including things such as bleeds, spot colours, structural integrity, etc.
If a creative partner lacks extensive manufacturing knowledge, their digital designs will likely turn into unusable and costly errors when they go to the factory for printing.
Ask the agency specific questions about their knowledge of substrates, and how they communicate with factories directly.
Parallel process architecture
Investigate how the agency organizes its timeline and plan to deliver the product.
As the agency engages with you, the conceptual ideas for packaging should be provided to the animation storyboard as early as the second week of the engagement.
If the agency does not start digital animation until several months after the print files have been completed, that agency is layering services instead of integrating them.
The economics of an integrated brand rollout
When you employ a single creative agency as your partner in developing a new brand, your budget and the way that you functionally develop that brand will change from how you would normally budget and develop your brand by hiring multiple vendors to complete tasks.
The starting point for market retainers
Market Intelligence from Australia has shown that organizations in the Beauty and Cosmetics Industry, with a consumer product or brand presence, typically will spend between AUD 40,000 and AUD 120,000 on a high-end integrated brand strategy and execution.
This includes creating a brand strategy, designing structural and decorative packaging (primary and secondary), developing motion graphic tools and assets for digital advertising, and writing brand guidelines for static and moving media.
The cost of the 'alternative'
There are a few standalone options that will result in similar costs: a logo designer (AUD 15,000 - AUD 30,000), a specialty packaging firm (AUD 15,000 - AUD 40,000), and a motion graphics studio (AUD 10,000 - AUD 30,000).
So, on paper, there is considerable overlap.
The real cost difference is the 'Integration Premium'.
While the initial cost of an Integrated Agency may seem high, the elimination of miscommunication and wasted time on graphic revisions, as well as faster speed to market, will result in a much lower overall cost.
The bottom line
Logos only represent a small part of a company's overall brand.
Packaging alone represents the 'physical' aspect of a brand, while motion graphics represent the 'digital' side of a brand.
Combining these three has become the 'Standard of Operations' for every modern product company that wants to maintain or grow its market share.
- Packaging establishes a tangible presence in the real world.
- The 'digital' aspect of motion graphics allows for global reach.
- The unifying principle of identity connects every element in a system.
When identity, packaging, and motion are developed together from day one, the result is a compound growth asset.
Brands developed through this unifying lens do not simply exist in a visual environment (like a mood board).
They exist as aggressive active entities in our physical world.
Questions and answers
How does motion design affect retail packaging success?
Digital Motion will provide the basis of a customer being familiar with a company before visiting a retail store.
When a customer comes in contact with a physical product on a shelf, they already have knowledge of that companies kinetic typography, highly finished three-dimensional rendering, and animated unboxing strategy, thereby immediately being able to recognize it visually.
Therefore, the customer's cognitive barrier to making a purchase greatly decreases.
What is the main point where using two different design vendors fail?
The main operational failures involve mismatched color profiles and distorted typography.
Print vendors rely heavily on CMYK and exact Pantone matching while Digital Motion Teams rely on dynamic RGB color space.
Because of not having a centralized art director who bridges the technical gaps between the two entities, the exact appearance of a brand looks vastly different online and in the real world.
Can digital first agencies successfully execute the production of physical packages?
Digital first agencies can only effectively do this if their internal team possesses very specialized skills in structural design.
In order to produce physical packages, a company must have a proper understanding of complex die lines, substrate durability, physical weight distribution, and the global tolerance limits for printing.
If a digital first studio lacks this unique level of manufacturing literacy, they will produce digital files that physical manufacturers cannot reproduce.
Why is it so difficult for brands to transition from direct to consumer to physical retail?
The DTC brands have historically been optimized for a backlit mobile phone display and continuous fast scrolling through a digital format.
The retail shelf creates a scenario where Brands must aggressively fight for consumers’ attention under harsh fluorescent lights and against dozens of other aggressive competing brands.
Thus, translating the soft aesthetics associated with digital to the hard surface of a cardboard box requires that an agency has the ability to efficiently engineer both formats.