Energy Drink Package Design

Advertising Towards an Older Demographic

Throughout this brief I attempted to create packaging design that would reflect elements seen often in both energy drinks and products made for the older generation. To do this I tried to go for a slightly tounge-in-cheek approach that heavily leant into stereotypes for the elderly that used very muted tones and colours as well as typography in a comic book style to try and invoke a sense of nostalgia for older people who may not have seen that style of design in a while. To balance out the light-hearted design I also wanted to include separate elements included within the packaging that would aid the ease of use of the product as drink cans are not traditionally designed with older people in mind.

Here I created a moodboard to help visualise the direction I wanted to take the branding in. I took inspiration from popular 50s-70s comic books as well as general graphic design from that era that has a sort of faded look to the colours. This style incorporates a lot of powerful spiky shapes and strong onomatopoeia which I thought linked well to the designs of energy drink cans which often utilise intense language and shapes.

I also took into consideration products that were created in order to solve a problem elderly people may face, whether that’s mobility concerns or age related issues. They are often very bleak looking in appearance and are only produced to solve an issue with little consideration to aesthetics. This was where I needed to draw a line between how visually interesting of a design I wanted to create for that target audience before it becomes too over-stimulating for them and produces the opposite effect of what I wanted to create.

A study has also been done on the effects of human vision as we age over time (Jadkowski 2017). It shows how as we age we are less able to make out low contrast patterns and they become more difficult to read so it is important to maintain a good level of contrast in designs that suits older people. However the study also says that if there is too much contrast then it’s possible nothing will stand out and will begin to strain the eye instead. I tried to achieve this in my own designs by having a high level of contrast between the main text and the colour beneath it but also have lower contrasting elements in the background where the visual information is less important to the product.

3D Drinks Can Design

For the drink design I decided on using the traditional can model as that is the shape used most often on energy drinks and would look the most recognisable to old people that may be confused/put off from new design aesthetics, this shape also works the best with the included hand warmer that comes within the box of drinks. I created this hand warmer for the brand as refrigerated drinks such as these often get very cold and become harder to hold, let alone being held by an older person who may have thinner skin. I also designed it to have an old-style agile print on it to hark back to more old-fashioned clothing styles.

The drink comes in two flavour profiles: Tiramisu and Caramel Chew. I wanted both of the flavours to be reminiscent of older food trends with boiled sweets and tiramisu that has the coffee flavour popular amongst the older generation.

During my research I found that a lot of energy drinks also had a tag-line that went along with the brand so for mine I went with “Don’t be sleepy…have a GP!” in the classic comic book typeface as I thought the word ‘sleepy’ linked to older people as well as someone in need of a boost of energy. I also shortened GrandPops to GP in order to create a shortening for the brand that could be expanded upon and turned into a trend.

Can Tab opener

Another gimmick I produced was a can opener that can used to help people within the target audience that struggle with mobility issues and aren’t able to open the cans using the thin tab. I drew it into the shape of a newsboy cap to reference the same one that can be seen in the logo with it also being an appropriately ergonomic shape that someone could simply push down on to open.

3D Drink Box Design

For the box design I wanted to keep it simple as to not cluster it with too many elements as there is already a considerable amount on the can itself. I mirrored the same stripes coming out of the GrandPops text as seen on the cans to add further emphasis to the ‘DUO’ text. The packaging of the box also allows the hand warmer to be used as a handle for the box itself as these boxes would be fairly heavy and hard for the elderly to carry with ease. The handle can then be switched out onto the can when needed.

Rendered Products

References:

• Wildpack Beverage Corp. (2023) Everything You Need to Know About Can Labels [Blog post] Available online: https://wildpackbev.com/everything-you-need-to-know-about-can-labels// [Accessed 09/03/24]
• Jadkowski, M. (2017) Color in Designing Technology for Seniors [Study] [Image] Available online: https://eldertech.org/color-in-designing-technology-for-seniors/ [Accessed 10/03/24]