Kevin: Welcome, everybody! I'm your host Kevin Keigley, and with me today is one of my colleagues at the Packaging School, Anna—Anna Ogletree. I've known Anna for a little while and we've got to work together at the Packaging School, working on some different projects and that kind of thing.

But over the course of time, I've learned that you have an interesting obsession. And I don't know if it's an obsession like where we need to call the Discovery Channel and have them come out for an intervention, but what we have laid out here is just a portion or part of your obsession. Can you tell us what is your obsession, Anna? 

Anna: I have an obsession with collecting foreign packages, specifically food packaging. 

Kevin: Now how did that even begin? 

Anna: I didn't really have much obsession with packaging at all until I chose it as my major for Clemson University, and after that I just got really interested in the processes of how each type of package can be designed in different ways to be unique for each brand and each product. 

Kevin: So, let's start with tabs because I think those are interesting, like they're not all the same across the world. 

Anna: If you're from the US and most parts of the world, I guess, you're probably used to seeing a can tab that looks like this—aluminum, these are all aluminum. But I've seen a trend recently where you can add color to them; it's probably through digital printing also. This one is from a Starbucks, a coffee drink. 

Kevin: I've heard of Starbucks. 

Anna: Yea, it's Starbucks green. I don’t know if that’s a brand . . . 

Kevin: Yea, I am sure it is branded. 

Anna: But this is one way that can tabs can be used in the design itself to set your product apart. 

Kevin: Yea, just another way to make that branding pop, another way to stand out from everywhere else. 

Anna: Michelob Ultra, as well as Monster energy drinks, they've got these tabs that they have a different design, they don't have the opening there; instead, they use that space to add more graphics and more of their brand.

Kevin: I know on Bubly’s . . . I think they say like . . .  

Anna: Yeah, I have one. 

Kevin: Oh, sorry! I'm jumping ahead of you. 

Anna: Yeah, like Kevin was saying, the Bubly drinks, sparkling waters, they have different messages and different colors for each type . . . 

Kevin: . . . each flavor . . . 

Anna: each flavor . . . and they all say different forms of hello—so this says, hi you. This is a Red Bull can, I believe they're from Austria, so this might be an Austrian design, but I'm not sure. They have actually cut out the design of a bull . . . 

Kevin: . . . so, instead of printing in that space, they actually punched out their logo. Wow, so many different options.

Conclusion

At the Packaging School, we’re always saying the phrase “Packaging is Awesome.” And if this is not a compelling example of that, I don’t know what is! Anna’s passion for packaging is evident when looking at the vast array of food and beverage packaging she’s gathered over the years. And we couldn’t even get to all of it in this lesson—this is part one of a series investigating Anna’s collection—so stay tuned! 

In the meantime, if you want to learn more about how to approach a project with your team and leverage iterative development to build winning designs, check out our Packaging Design Workflow course today!