Background
Vibes are earplugs designed for music. While a traditional foam earplug muffles and distorts sound, Vibes actually filter acoustics, lowering decibel levels equally from bass to treble, approximately 22dB. This allows you to hear the music exactly the way it intended to be heard, only without the damaging decibels that cause your ears to ring.
Vibes wants to revolutionize the live-sound experience and the product packaging had to deliver against the same promise.
An avid concert goer myself, it was easy to kick-off packaging development by envisioning the user journey. The distribution channels were still fluid at time, so it was important to design against the most non-traditional consumer journey: purchasing Vibes at a concert venue. Typical consumer electronics unboxing experiences occur in controlled environments, like on living room couches, in cell phone stores and on kitchen counters. The Vibes packaging main design challenge became delivering an elevated brand experience under turbulent conditions (a band merch table as point of sale, the consumer standing during the out of box experience, unknown pack disposal options, etc.)
Solution
The hinged, primary box fits comfortably in one hand and offers the sturdiness of a rigid box from a corrugated insert wrapped in the paperboard base of the box. This feature provides much structural strength and is more sustainable than the rigid box option. It also allows the pack to be shoved back into a jean pocket without risk of damage through the duration of a concert. The simple black printing with spot gloss on the product image provide a premium aesthetic, and the playful, orange, secondary color accents and announces the brand.
Upon opening, the flood black interior provides a quiet, clean stage for the product to shine. The earplugs are intentionally presented in an EVA foam tray, nodding to the foam material's noise reduction properties. Following the sacred hero moment, the lid inside doubles as a quick start guide, eliminating the need for additional insert sheets. A paperboard sleeve below the tray contains the product carrying case and additional sizes of ear tips.
Vibes are earplugs designed for music. While a traditional foam earplug muffles and distorts sound, Vibes actually filter acoustics, lowering decibel levels equally from bass to treble, approximately 22dB. This allows you to hear the music exactly the way it intended to be heard, only without the damaging decibels that cause your ears to ring.
Vibes wants to revolutionize the live-sound experience and the product packaging had to deliver against the same promise.
An avid concert goer myself, it was easy to kick-off packaging development by envisioning the user journey. The distribution channels were still fluid at time, so it was important to design against the most non-traditional consumer journey: purchasing Vibes at a concert venue. Typical consumer electronics unboxing experiences occur in controlled environments, like on living room couches, in cell phone stores and on kitchen counters. The Vibes packaging main design challenge became delivering an elevated brand experience under turbulent conditions (a band merch table as point of sale, the consumer standing during the out of box experience, unknown pack disposal options, etc.)
Solution
The hinged, primary box fits comfortably in one hand and offers the sturdiness of a rigid box from a corrugated insert wrapped in the paperboard base of the box. This feature provides much structural strength and is more sustainable than the rigid box option. It also allows the pack to be shoved back into a jean pocket without risk of damage through the duration of a concert. The simple black printing with spot gloss on the product image provide a premium aesthetic, and the playful, orange, secondary color accents and announces the brand.
Upon opening, the flood black interior provides a quiet, clean stage for the product to shine. The earplugs are intentionally presented in an EVA foam tray, nodding to the foam material's noise reduction properties. Following the sacred hero moment, the lid inside doubles as a quick start guide, eliminating the need for additional insert sheets. A paperboard sleeve below the tray contains the product carrying case and additional sizes of ear tips.
This freelance project started from an idea at a coffee shop and concluded in an elegant and sustainable packaging solution that brings a premium experience to the concert-goer and retail shopper alike.
It took many iterations to get to the final design.
To kick-off the project, I made a few different design paths based off of the competitive set, pieces included in the pack and past experience with Xbox. In the meeting, I walked the client through the paths and implications and we were able to discuss consumer journey and where the product would predominantly be used.
For first round of concepts, there was appetite to see all components when you first open the box to show value.
I took this feedback back and created a rough mock up of how I saw it coming to life. At the next review with the team, we decided that the footprint was too large for the item and that there may be room to optimize the pack and save on shipping.
I then created a concept showing a footprint that was about 50% the original size and the client loved it and we proceeded with that.
I maintained the rigid box look by keeping the corrugated insert in the perimiter of the box, but reduced the size and changed the insert to just be a wrap that snugly fit around the ear tip case. This would allow icon graphics to be placed on the wrap hinting at the small and large extra tips, as well as the case, laid below.
