What's Happening at Formada Creative

CLIENT WORK | Prime Care Medical

meghan@formadacreative.com (Meghan Feyerabend) — Tue, 21 Mar 2023 20:51:14 GMT

This winter, we overhauled Prime Care Medical's website to better communicate their focus on lifestyle and preventative medicine as a direct-care provider. In addition, we added an exclusive patient-only monthly newsletter to help keep engagement high and add to the benefits provided by the clinic. The response so far has resulted in high patient retention and new patient acquisition.

View the live website here: www.primecaresiloam.com

We created new icons for visual communicate, and updated the hierarchy of pages to increase readability and provide a better user experience. Many people are still unfamiliar with the concept of direct-care when it comes to healthcare providers so we wrote new copy to better explain it, and broke it down in easily digestible bits.

The monthly newsletter complements the overall look and feel of the website, and helps keep patients engaged even when they don't need medical care.

2023 packaging design trends

meghan@formadacreative.com (Meghan Feyerabend) — Tue, 21 Feb 2023 19:19:33 GMT

The new year is upon is, which means alllll the trends for the year are coming out! We love this time as a way to reset, re-evaluate, and make sure we're on top of what's happening in the design world. With digital printing becoming the norm and ecommerce still growing steadily, it seems easier than ever to stay nimble and adaptable with the changing marketplace. Of course, we don't want to get too trendy if we're creating long-lasting packaging, but incorporating some of these elements will help keep you relevant. Here's what we're seeing ahead for packaging design in 2023!

Connecting your packaging to your brand story and overall marketing strategy is always the first place to start. New innovations and brands are popping up every day, so it's important to communicate to potential consumers WHY your product is the best. Is it your sustainability or organic message? Maybe it's that your start was in a small kitchen and you still taste-test your batches to find the perfect one. Whatever the case, make sure to set yourself apart!

How will you draw attention to yourself through packaging design in 2023? Here's what we see!

Bold Fonts - in the ever-crowded store aisle, your packaging will get lost more than ever before. Bolder fonts with a higher contrast from foreground to background are still trending this year and will be around for a while. You have just seconds to command attention to your product, so make it count!
Brighter colors - we're seeing a resurgence in brighter colors at the grocery store. Even for the more organic brands, earth-tones are on their way out for now.
Packaging Billboards - creating a packaging design that works together when placed next to each other is more likely to stand out to a consumer. Maybe your lids are all a distinct design, or the designs on the face of your boxes all flow together.

In food packaging, this debate has been ongoing for a while. Currently, we're seeing a rise in illustrations on packaging, and a change in the way food photos are presented. In a nutshell, everything is going bolder. Illustrations are larger, brighter and less complex. Not as much "grunge" as 10 years ago. Photos are also getting larger and less busy. Instead of a bowl of food, we're seeing one or two pieces enlarged or ingredients called out through big individual photos on the primary display panels. Much of this has to do with the consumers ' ever-growing obsession of transparency in what's actually in their food. When you have a bowl of stuff with multiple garnishes, it feels like you're hiding something.

Sustainability is not so much a trend as much as it is the changing future of packaging design. Consumers are growing more conscious of how products interact with the earth and as brand there is a responsibility to ensure that what we create doesn't further exacerbate the current climate crisis. Convenience is great, but so is a living planet. Many brands are working to eliminate non-biodegradable plastics and incorporating more recycled materials into packaging. Printing directly on a can rather than a shrink-sleeve, using uncoated processes that are easier to break down and encouraging customers to reuse glass jars are all ways we're seeing a rise in sustainability.

Simplicity is key in 2023, though this doesn't mean boring! Here are ways we're seeing brands simplify their packaging this year.

Limited color palette - just because you CAN print 25 colors on the front of your package doesn't mean you SHOULD.
Less gradients and fuzzy drop shadows - gradients were big in the early 2000s but we're seeing them decline for the sake of simplicity. Also, brands are using harder, bolder drop shadows instead of soft and fuzzy ones.
Limited PDP callouts - pick one or two things you want the consumer to know, and put the rest on the back or sides!
More negative space - see above. If there's too much to look at on the front of the packaging, it might just be put back on the shelf. This is also just good design advice and less of a trend. You want the important info to stand out, and the rest to fade away until the consumer wants to see it.

We're seeing more brand partnerships than ever before, and of course this makes its way into packaging designs. If you're looking for some product innovations in 2023, it would be worth considering a partnership for mutually beneficial marketing tactics and aligning yourself with brands that have similar values.

Ok, definitely not a trend but we feel like it needs to be said! Especially if you're considering a packaging redesign which can be costly and require lots of marketing backing, you'll want to create a design that resonates with customers. Just because a few people think it looks pretty doesn't mean it will perform well. Most redesigns see a slight dip as customers get used to something different, but you don't want that to last very long. Also, evaluating similar types of products in your category as well as store brands is helpful for standing out and not getting lost on the shelves.

So there you have it - the packaging design trends to watch out for in 2023. We can't wait to see how brands will take these ideas and run with them. Who knows what kind of wild and wonderful packaging designs we'll be seeing in the future? One thing's for sure - we'll be keeping our eyes peeled and our imaginations open. If you're ready to elevate your packaging design, send us a message and we'd be happy to setup a discovery call and find out if we're the right fit.

CLIENT WORK | Ivory Bill Vintage Ale

meghan@formadacreative.com (Meghan Feyerabend) — Thu, 22 Dec 2022 16:30:43 GMT

Around here, the holidays mean the return of Ivory Bill's Vintage Ale. Each year we look forward to creating the labels using beautiful, original artwork from local artist Ian McCloud almost as much as we look forward to partaking!

new mural alert!

meghan@formadacreative.com (Meghan Feyerabend) — Fri, 17 Jan 2020 22:56:18 GMT

There are murals, and then there are M U R A L S

This past fall, Yatika Starr Fields - Osage, Cherokee, Muskogee from Tulsa, OK - graced our new memorial park with the most incredible mural my eyes have ever seen. Over the course of about a week, we got to know Yatika and were able to capture some great images of the process.

From Yatika's instagram post about the mural: "In all, the mural serves as a visual reference to the area's history, natural landscapes and ecology - a place to hold and create memory and allow the freedom of creativity to inspire a future for wellness and much more."

We love the vibrancy of the colors, movement and finding new details each time we look at it.

we love downtown siloam

meghan@formadacreative.com (Meghan Feyerabend) — Thu, 14 Nov 2019 22:16:00 GMT

It isn't every day that you get to float above the street in a bucket truck (unless, of course, you work for the electric dept.) but Meghan got to do that a few weeks ago to capture an updated photo of downtown Siloam Springs. It was fun to see the town from above and watch squirrels running around on the power lines!

This photo is created in style known as composite - where we stitch together the best elements of multiple photos to create the perfect image. The city of Siloam Springs and Main Street Siloam Springs will use this photo in advertising campaigns, and it's available for purchase through our studio!

We printed a large canvas for Dr. Dixon's lobby and LOVE LOVE LOVE the way it turned out!

the thing about fads

meghan@formadacreative.com (Meghan Feyerabend) — Fri, 01 Nov 2019 20:52:42 GMT

Since I was a kid, I've always liked being different - following along with fads really wasn't my thing. I even used to sneak different clothes to elementary school so I could customize my outfits in ways that my parents thought were weird. Yeah, I was weird.

As an agency leader now, I've realized that not following every design fad verbatim can have huge benefits for my clients, although it presents some downsides when marketing our services because we’re not the “cool kids.”

Our clients benefit from having great design that sets them apart. We build logos and packaging in a way that can’t be easily copied because it’s so personal to the brand, not to our agency. You probably can’t walk into a store and pick out all of the packaging that we designed based on it having one style.

I was recently in the coffee aisle at Whole Foods, which is filled with lots of our awesome local roasters. I accidentally picked up a different brand than I meant to, because the design was nearly identical. I completely surprised myself, because I’m normally a very observant person and this is not a mistake I tend to make. But, the packaging was just that similar.

Fads have a place in design, and can be really fun to keep up with - but as designers we have to use them wisely. Everyone knows that fads have a limited life, and the more connected we are, the more limited that life becomes.

When we start a project, we start by listening to you, our client. We don’t come in telling you who you need to be, but craft our process around who you want to be. Of course we guide you along the way because we know what works and how to achieve great results through great design - but we don’t push our own style and need to be trendy on you. In the end, this collaborative process produces better results and designs that have a much longer lifespan.

So no, we’re not super cool. But we’re cool with that. Welcome to an agency that’s all about you.

-Meghan

CLIENT WORK | Pure Joy Ice Cream Pint Packaging

meghan@formadacreative.com (Meghan Feyerabend) — Mon, 07 Oct 2019 21:19:51 GMT

Sometimes, a complete packaging redesign can feel pretty intimidating.

Customers are frequently on auto-pilot while they’re shopping, so if they don’t see something familiar they might just breeze on past without picking up your product.

When we started the redevelopment of Pure Joy Ice Cream’s pint packaging, we put a lot of thought into the process to ensure that even though this packaging would be entirely new and different, customers would notice it and it would resonate with the brand. Since Pure Joy is just a regional brand and many grocery customers have interacted with either their shop or one of their catering carts, we decided to make the pints reminiscent of the shop/cart look and feel.

All of the lids are the same - which helps create a billboard effect on the freezer shelf that stands out as customers are walking by. The red and white stripes also appear on the catering cart and umbrellas at the scoop shop, so the brand recognition is strong. We kept with a very simple design and color scheme that has a nostalgic but also modern feel.

Sustainability is important to Pure Joy, so we were excited to help them transition from plastic packaging to paper cups that use 30% post consumer recycled paper and are produced in the U.S.A.

Pure Joy also partners with many local producers to create a truly unique and local product. We came up with fun ways to call out their partnerships on the packaging.

Pure Joy produces many seasonal flavors in limited runs, so it’s not cost effective to have separate packaging for each, so we designed a “blank” design that utilizes die-cut stickers that have a similar feel to the main flavors.

CLIENT WORK | Del Monte® Fruitburst® Squeezers

meghan@formadacreative.com (Meghan Feyerabend) — Tue, 12 Mar 2019 21:19:52 GMT

Packaging design work is always different, and usually presents interesting challenges that most consumers never know about. This particular project required some pretty extensive and creative problem solving, but in the end we were thrilled with the results (and happy to send off to the printer!). We get pretty technical in this blog post, but honestly, this was a super technical project so it’s hard to talk about it otherwise. Design is way more than just making things look great.

the foodservice challenge

This project was a specifically K-12 foodservice package, meaning that the only place you’d probably ever see this would be at a school. Foodservice as a general industry has much tighter margins than retail products (which are still pretty tight!) so our client really needed to keep the print costs down. The squeezers come in three different flavors that each have unique nutrition facts, ingredients statements and UPCs, so the packages couldn’t be completely the same. However, we worked with the client and the printer to come up with a solution using Pantone colors where all of the printing cylinders would be the same across the three flavors, and each flavor would only need one distinct cylinder. (The print process used is called gravure, which basically means the design is engraved onto a cylinder, ink is applied to the cylinder and then rolled over the foil substrate.) So, without going too much more in depth about the technicalities of printing, here is what our final files looked like when we sent them off! Lots of left-braining going on here ;)

the final packaging

We were so excited to finally get physical samples from Del Monte and be able to share this now that it’s out in the marketplace. I am sure they’re tasty, too, but since we only got one set of samples we’ll just have to trust them.

FORMADA | to create something that didn't exist before

meghan@formadacreative.com (Meghan Feyerabend) — Wed, 13 Feb 2019 22:19:52 GMT

Even though changing our name has been in the plans for a long time now, it wasn’t until this fall when we finally settled on Formada Creative. Naming (or re-naming) a company can be like that sometimes, but I firmly believe that when you know, you know. Dozens of lists, lots of hours with a thesaurus and dictionary, writing out mini mission statements and jotting down words that embody our culture and vision and business overall are all part of the process. It can take weeks, months, even years - I’ve personally been mulling around ideas for the past two years or so.

So, how did we ultimately land on Formada? Formada is a Spanish word that means “shaped” or “form” or “mold” - which are all words that describe the creative process as it relates to design and marketing. For me, Spanish is a very important part of my life - as a 19 year old I lived and studied in Sevilla, Spain, and I believe that it really shaped a lot of who I am. (see what I did there…) However, I think what really got me about the word Formada was when I read the definition in Spanish - Hacer o crear algo que antes no existía. To make or create something that didn’t exist before. YES YES YES.

Over the years we have worked with startups as well as large businesses that are trying to innovate and do new things, and we have been so inspired by our clients as we help bring their unique ideas to life. The work itself can be challenging, but I think that is a big part of why we love it so much.

I also found through this process that shaking up my routine and getting out - traveling, hiking, going for a run or just taking a walk - was a huge creative boost. I was even able to visit Sevilla this past summer and reconnect with my host family and the city that captured my heart.

So if you’re reading this and thinking about re-branding or building a new business, take heart! The process can be long and tiresome, but when you lean in and bring your personal story into your brand, the outcome can be incredible.

-Meghan

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What's Happening at Formada Creative

CLIENT WORK | Prime Care Medical

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View the live website here: www.primecaresiloam.com

2023 packaging design trends

CLIENT WORK | Ivory Bill Vintage Ale

Around here, the holidays mean the return of Ivory Bill's Vintage Ale. Each year we look forward to creating the labels using beautiful, original artwork from local artist Ian McCloud almost as much as we look forward to partaking!

new mural alert!

There are murals, and then there are **M U R A L S**

This past fall, Yatika Starr Fields - Osage, Cherokee, Muskogee from Tulsa, OK - graced our new memorial park with the most incredible mural my eyes have ever seen. Over the course of about a week, we got to know Yatika and were able to capture some great images of the process.

we love downtown siloam

the thing about fads

Since I was a kid, I've always liked being different - following along with fads really wasn't my thing. I even used to sneak different clothes to elementary school so I could customize my outfits in ways that my parents thought were weird. Yeah, I was weird.

CLIENT WORK | Pure Joy Ice Cream Pint Packaging

Sometimes, a complete packaging redesign can feel pretty intimidating.

Sustainability is important to Pure Joy, so we were excited to help them transition from plastic packaging to paper cups that use 30% post consumer recycled paper and are produced in the U.S.A.

Pure Joy also partners with many local producers to create a truly unique and local product. We came up with fun ways to call out their partnerships on the packaging.

Pure Joy produces many seasonal flavors in limited runs, so it’s not cost effective to have separate packaging for each, so we designed a “blank” design that utilizes die-cut stickers that have a similar feel to the main flavors.

CLIENT WORK | Del Monte® Fruitburst® Squeezers

the foodservice challenge

the final packaging

FORMADA | to create something that didn't exist before

Name Lastname

Name Lastname

Name Lastname

There are murals, and then there are M U R A L S