We’ve seen AI trickling into a variety of industries over the last decade; AI tools and software have infiltrated the vast packaging industry too, and we published a blog recently covering the AI tools that can help aid in packaging design. Now, we want to look at some illustrative examples of how top brands like Coca-Cola and Mattel are using generative AI to assist in their packaging design workflow.
Coca-Cola Y3000: AI-Inspired Packaging Design
In recent years, the Coca-Cola Company has opted to periodically release limited-edition flavors, many of which are a mystery and have futuristic elements—like the Y3000 released in September of 2023, reported by CNN.
As the graphic above indicates, Y3000 was “Co-Created with AI,” using generative AI to develop the flavor profile and product packaging. To garner inspiration for futuristic flavors, the CNN article notes that the Coca-Cola team started with a list of flavors people associate with the future generated through brainstorming and then used AI to “figure out flavor pairings and profiles.”
For inspiration for the Y3000 packaging, the Coca-Cola team used generative AI tools to create images that acted as a mood board for packaging design inspiration.
Coca-Cola explains the Y3000 packaging design in a September 2023 press release, stating: “A light-toned color palette featuring violet, magenta and cyan against a silver base gives a futuristic feel. The iconic Spencerian Script features a connected matrix of fluid dot clusters that merge to represent the human connections of our future planet.”
By utilizing generative AI to aid in the development of their Y3000 release, Coca-Cola illustrates how to effectively incorporate the use of AI tools for inspiration and idea generation in packaging and product development along with a reliance on human insights to tie them together.
Mattel: Using Adobe Firefly for Barbie Packaging
Similar to Coca-Cola, Mattel has worked to implement AI tools, specifically Adobe’s Firefly 3, to enhance and speed up the packaging design process for thousands of toys and products. Chris Down, the Chief Design Officer at Mattel, was quoted in a Fast Company article stating, “Mattel makes about 4,000 new toys a year, and a lot of that is packaging.”
The same Fast Company article notes the use of Adobe Firefly has served two key purposes for Mattel's packaging team: “Helping to visualize fantastical new toy ideas in the pitching stage, and cutting down the extra labor associated with Photoshop’s more time-consuming tasks.”
Mattel’s team also utilizes AI tools in brainstorming processes and for help with repetitive tasks, as does Coca-Cola, but Mattel is headstrong on ensuring AI does not overtake the process. Chris Down notes, “The key to incorporating any new design tool is for consumers not to know it was used at all.”
Unlike Coca-Cola, who is utilizing AI for one-off projects like Y3000, Mattel is making a clear move to invest in AI tools, like Firefly 3, to assist in the development of thousands of products and packages. The implementation of generative AI in a number of industries has not come without extreme controversy and fear from the general public, which is covered by a June Wired article highlighting artists' fears around Adobe using their artwork to train AI models like Firefly.
If more companies are working to implement generative AI to speed up brainstorming and repetitive tasks, it must be done ethically and not serve as a substitute for human intervention and creativity. Down and Mattel are aware of this, with Down stating:
“I was talking to one of my product designers, and he described it in a way I thought was really compelling. He referenced an old Edison quote of ‘1% inspiration and 99% perspiration.’ With GenAI tools, that notion is shifting. The 1% starts to expand, and the 99% starts to reduce . . . It’s amplifying my creativity by compressing time and taking out some of that perspiration.”
It will be interesting to follow how the packaging industry and wider stakeholder groups respond to Mattel’s adoption of generative AI tools; we will also be seeking examples of new products and packaging designs that are released in the coming quarters.
Here at the Packaging School, we believe in the power of generative AI tools to aid in certain organizational processes, but strongly feel that a package 100% designed by AI will fail to resonate with consumers and could be a reputational risk. AI will never replace human insight and our understanding of ergonomic factors, which are cornerstone to effective and memorable packaging design. We also recommend having conversations with your designers, packaging engineers, and other employees to see if generative AI can address any pain points they experience. It is important to get the insights and opinions of those who will actually use the tools on a day-to-day basis.
Read more on AI’s ever evolving role in the packaging industry in these articles:
Learn more about how to creative effective and ergonomic packaging designs in our suite of online packaging design courses, including:
Pack Design Workshop – design your own cereal box!
Augmented Reality for Packaging – free!
