Morton Salt – Safe-T-Pet

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Morton Salt – Safe-T-Pet

A pawprint for packaging success.

Veterinarians say rock salt and other salt-based ice melts can be harmful to pets when they walk on it and when they lick their paws and coats clean. The salt causes skin burns and, if ingested, can cause stomach upset, vomiting, diarrhea and even death. 60% of American households use rock salt and salt-based ice melt products, but only 38% are aware of the hazards.

That’s why Morton Salt developed Safe-T-Pet Ice Melt to prevent harm to animals during the icy winter months as their owners take them outside for walks and to play in the snow. Morton Safe-T-Pet is salt and chloride free and melts down to 10⁰F.

Studio One Eleven helped the company update its Safe-T-Pet packaging to boost the product’s shelf visibility and benefit messaging.

The new, custom-designed Safe-T-Pet package delivers on multiple fronts. The design draws attention and adds consumer appeal on retail shelves through angled geometries that provide a contemporary look, updating the previous curved bottle and improving pack-out efficiencies for shipping. The translucent bottle material hints at the pale blue product inside.  

The patented bottle and closure design includes a custom-engineered “snap-on/twist-off” neck finish. Made of durable, yet economical HDPE plastic, the new design solves the column-strength issue that affected the previous package, thus making the package more robust for the retail supply chain.

Further establishing its unique look, the package employs a die-cut, pressure-sensitive label that follows the angled bottle/handle silhouette. The label retains the signature Morton dark blue brand color, juxtaposed against a bright blue background.

 For additional brand recognition, the Morton logo is debossed into the package’s most useful feature:  a flip-top closure. Replacing a more traditional wide-mouth screw-top that was difficult for small hands to open, the custom polypropylene flip-top pops open with one hand for pouring, then seals tightly with a snap. The handle, also reworked, is wider and deeper to accommodate a gloved hand. Raised handle threads give even gloved fingers something to grip confidently.

With a bold, sturdy appearance, highly ergonomic design, and appealing color palette, Safe-T-Pet Ice Melt offers trust, confidence and convenience to pet owners. The label claims—“Safer for Pets” and “Veterinarian Recommended”—are reinforced by a photo of a child with her puppy on a freshly-cleared sidewalk, helping to underscore the main benefit:  An Ice Melt for Happy Paws.

Petchup

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Petchup

A healthy dog condiment that makes dry kibble exciting.

There are between 70 and 80 million pet dogs in the U.S., and many pet owners consider their dogs full-fledged members of the family. Petchup is a company that manufactures a convenient, tasty and healthy condiment sauce made especially for dogs. The packaging is designed to make it easy for dog owners to treat their pets with a sauce that makes dry kibble tastier while also adding healthy ingredients into the diet. Petchup is packaged in 16-ounce polypropylene condiment bottles with polypropylene snap-top closures.

Berlin Packaging decorated the bottles at the filler with shrink-sleeve labels that are reminiscent of condiments that are made for humans. One of the packaging challenges faced was to create polypropylene bottles that can accommodate a fill at 180-degrees. The bottle also has to be distortion-resistant to ensure a consistent shrink label fit. With its unique design, the Petchup packaging solution fulfills the company’s goals. The design accommodates the filling and labeling requirements, and its shape reminds pet owners of the condiments they use to improve the taste of their own food — and to offer their pets a tasty, nutritious treat as well. 

FURminator

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FURminator Pet Shampoo

Barking up the right tree.

Most pet shampoos focus on formulas, with packaging merely an afterthought. United Pet Group believed its premium FURminator hair care products for dogs, already a popular product line, could gain competitive advantage by paying greater attention to packaging details. Its refresh did just that with both retailers and consumers.

Going in the opposite direction from generic pet shampoo bottles, designers recommended a slender-waisted bottle; the pinch grip, enhanced by a scored texture finish, allows shampooers—typically female, according to research—to grab, open, and apply the product easily with one hand while holding a wet pooch in the other. The custom high-density polyethylene container and stock polypropylene closure were matched to the distinctive FURminator brand and label colors for easy identification on store shelves.

By emphasizing quality as well as utility, the line produced higher product placement with virtually every retail chain. Since the new package debut, unit sales have exceeded projections by 80%.

Pet & Vet

Sergeant's Skip-Flea Pet Shampoo

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Sergeant's Skip-Flea Pet Shampoo


Graceful new package for pet shampoo.

Responding to consumer and retailer demand for a unique, ownable brand presence, Sergeant's Pet Care revamped its pet shampoos with the introduction of exciting new packaging.

Studio One Eleven developed a container for its most premium line of shampoos that would be unique to the pet care category – one that would elevate the Skip-Flea brand above competitors by imparting 'human care' visual cues.

The result is a dramatic package that is defined by large, sweeping ribbons and curves that frame the client's branding with a graceful silhouette. The organic nature of the form and the complexity of the custom neck finish required an exceptional degree of coordination across the supply chain – something Berlin Packaging handles routinely.


Pet Care

TropiClean

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TropiClean

Going green with new look.

Cosmos Corporation approached Studio One Eleven with a challenge: while Cosmos' TropiClean pet grooming prod­ucts were recognizable, the containers and visu­al branding hadn't changed in 15 years, giving them dated look. The Studio and Cosmos created an approach that went beyond the package to include a comprehensive overhaul of the brand itself. 

The Studio was instrumental in the design of a complete package that communi­cates the green positioning of TropiClean in the market.
— TropiClean's VP of Marketing

Studio One Eleven began by redesigning the TropiClean logo, transforming it into a fresher, contemporized brandmark that is recognizable to brand loyalists but much more bolder than the outgoing version. For the bottles, the Studio's depth of experience in human-factors and user research came into play. Topping off the whole package is a Studio-created cus­tom flip-top closure, also designed to be opened and closed with a single hand. 

The bottle and sleeve are made from Ingeo, an ingenious biopolymer made from plants, not oil. This means it's 100% natural and renewable.


Product Design, Household Chemical, Novelty

Mission Athletecare

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Mission Athletecare


Performance packaging for performance athletes. 

Mission Athletecare's COURT GRIP is a proprietary, NBA-endorsed shoe treatment designed to improve traction on basketball courts and other indoor court surfaces. No stock package would allow athletes or trainers to quickly apply the formula to the soles of their shoes with one hand while standing or sitting. Studio One Eleven performed extensive design work and engineering to yield an ergonomic solution with a custom applicator positioned at an extreme 45-degree angle, plus a contoured, custom-molded bottle with strategically placed finger grips to provide a firm hold even with sweaty hands.

Innovations include a custom applicator with a special cloth bonded to the applicator sponge for durability under heavy use, an internal valve system to dispense the proper amount of formula when depressed against the shoe sole without squeezing, and modifications to the blow molding to accommodate the unusual 45-degree angle of the bottle opening required for optimal product application.

As a completely new product category with no precedents to follow or adapt, this package features an all-new design that included input from athletes such as product co-developer NBA All-Star Dwyane Wade. The structure of the custom applicator, the applicator angle, the one-size-fits-all-hands contours of the custom-molded HDPE bottle, the texture and placement of the finger grips, and even the accentuated foot to increase stability for quick in-game use are all fresh design features that underwent extensive testing to deliver an ergonomically-optimized solution for a product that must be quickly applied in an unusual body posture.

The COURT GRIP product and a sister product, POWER GRIP, maintain an aesthetic with detailed embossed line work evoking the contour of elite athlete's body. A metallic silver finish and high-gloss black closure create a striking contrast on the shelf. Bold branding of the Mission products translates well from advertisements to NBA scoring tables.

The package is made of HDPE, a recycle-friendly resin. Optimized pack-out also helped minimize the impact of freight cost and maximize the number of units per truckload.