The concept for Terra by NatureMade was a speculative collaboration between myself and three other design students at the University of Cincinnati—Parker Hawk (industrial design), Morgan Lakofka (communication design), and Stephanie Varney (fashion design)—aimed at helping NatureMade products to appeal to a younger, environmentally-conscious consumer base.
Second-place Award Winner: Institute of Packaging Professionals, Student Ameristar 2021
Since 1971, Nature Made has prided itself on making high quality vitamins that can cover a wide variety of lifestyles. Their commitment to the consumer's health has always come first. However, their packaging has some weaknesses.
At first glance of the shelf set, the following weaknesses are apparent:
The individual units themselves have a few weaknesses as well:
After identifying the weaknesses of the product, we decided to identify who the ideal consumer would be by creating a speculative persona—a 21 year old, eco-conscious college student.With this project, we chose to create a concept that would help NatureMade appeal to a younger audience who has specific health goals in mind. This consumer may be a first-time vitamin purchaser and could easily get overwhelmed by the seemingly endless amount of choices in the vitamin aisle. They want to target specific areas of wellness, minimize their carbon footprint, and invest in products that are natural and sustainable. They do not currently associate NatureMade products with their desired outcome, and cannot find a product that is both natural and lifestyle-focused.
The individual supplements within the NatureMade brand of vitamins are difficult to discern between. Shopping for vitamins, especially "natural" vitamins, is an overwhelming experience. A lot of younger people are searching for lifestyle-based supplements, and Nature Made currently does not appeal to this range of users.
As we began to work on branding the speculative product, the other graphic designer and I experimented with muted, natural tones and simple illustrations.
The colors we chose for the final branding needed to be bright enough to work well with the bright yellow of the cap, which we left the same for brand recognition. We incorporated youthful, bright illustrations and sleek typography in order to create a voice for the product which resonated with the desired audience.
For the structure of the package, our team decided to keep it recognizable as a NatureMade product by keeping the signature yellow cap, adding an engraved logo on the top for visual interest. Our industrial designer took careful care to create a package that was easy to hold and easy to dispense the product from, by adding indents on the sides of the unit and creating a flip-open dispensing function. Both the lid and the body of the package are made up of Danimer Scientific's PHA, a100% renewable and recyclable bioplastic in order to decrease waste when the package is disposed.
We also wanted to make a point to help improve the presence of the product on the shelf with competitor products. A tall, thin silhouette and the bright yellow cap help Terra to stand out from other multivitamins. The recognizable NatureMade cap provides trust in the product and the trendy brand colors attract a younger audience.
This project was a really cool opportunity to work with designers of a different discipline. I also have a personal interest in being environmentally conscious in my own life, so this was a great way to learn about different advances in the packaging industry. I also really enjoyed solving a tangible problem through a lot of research and analysis.
