Designed at OCAD for a Packaging Design Class

SmartSweet's Candy

For my packaging design assignment, I focused on redesigning SmartSweets packaging for the Sweet Fish and Sour Melon Bites flavours. I aimed to improve the readability and hierarchy of information on the package without altering the brand's recognizable color scheme and general layout. In the original design, the flavor text was small and placed over large, vibrant images representing the flavors, making it challenging to read against the colorful background.

To address this, I divided the flavor imagery into three smaller segments to create more space for the flavor text, allowing it to stand out clearly on the package. Additionally, I repositioned the key phrase, “Kick Sugar - Keep Candy,” directly below the flavor text, giving it better visibility to highlight SmartSweets' unique value proposition. I also moved the SmartSweets logo above the "3g of sugar" label, ensuring it is the second element consumers see, further reinforcing brand recognition.

As part of this project, I conducted a competitive analysis, comparing SmartSweets to similar low-sugar candy brands like Kiss My Keto and Better Bears. SmartSweets and Kiss My Keto both use bright, eye-catching colours and large flavour images in the center of their packaging, but I found that SmartSweets’ layout had a stronger visual appeal. Kiss My Keto follows a similar approach in representing flavors but sometimes loses visibility by layering white text over light backgrounds.

Better Bears takes a different approach, covering the package with small gummy bear images representing the flavors, but the busy design can be overwhelming and makes the key details less prominent. Through these comparisons, I realized that SmartSweets' package design could benefit from a more defined hierarchy, as it occasionally sacrifices readability for aesthetics. Overall, my redesign for SmartSweets draws attention to the most important product features by balancing imagery and text placement, enhancing the user experience, and making the package easier to navigate for consumers.