Achieving the right blend of branding elements and information on the Mintlet card's packaging was a careful balancing act for Radim Malinic of Brand Nu.
Mintlet approached Brand Nu's Radim Malinic with an open brief to create the logo, branding and packaging designs for its new multi-currency pre-payment card. Here Radim recounts the four steps towards getting the packaging absolutely right; you can read more about the project as a whole here.
01. The templates
The client supplied the die-cut templates, so I knew the packaging was around twice the size of the actual card. At first, I tried to use a rainbow as the background and weave the different elements into it, but it just didn't look right.
02. Getting the balance right
I knew I didn't want the packaging to look cheesy or dumbed down. I experimented with sizing in order to find the right balance between the branding and other elements and information that needed to be included.
03. Rip it up and start again
I ended up deleting everything and starting again from the ground up. I didn't want to diminish the brand's personality just because it needed to be readable on the shelf.
04. Particle system
At this point I remembered the T-shirt mock-up from my initial proposal. In this, I had used small particles taken from the logo, taken apart like pieces in Jenga. This worked perfectly - it's playful and subtle, and it's a way of making the visual system tie in with the logo.
Words: Radim Malinic
This article originally appeared in Computer Arts issue 222.
