10 product lines
2015 to 2019 Source: NDG invoice records, VersaPet
No Name cat litter for Loblaws
Pet products manufacturer, Toronto
What we did
- Packaging design
- Private label
- Bilingual artwork
- Print-ready files
- Ten product lines, 2015 to 2019
(01) The task
The task
A Toronto pet-products manufacturer had just won the No Name private label for a new unscented scoopable clumping cat litter. The listing was the prize; the pack was the test.
It had to read as cat litter from across the aisle and still obey No Name's minimalist yellow-and-black rules, which leave the designer very little.
Three product claims had to land at a glance on the front, with the environmental story on the back: extra hard clumping, 99% dust-free, minimal tracking, a bag with 70% less plastic than comparable products (the manufacturer's claims, as briefed).
No Name is Loblaw’s private label, and its packs follow strict rules: a yellow field, black type, no decoration. VersaPet Inc., a Toronto pet-products manufacturer, won the No Name contract for a new unscented scoopable clumping cat litter and asked New Design Group for a pack that would stand out on the shelf without breaking those rules.
The product had three things to say: extra hard clumping, 99% dust-free, minimal tracking. The pack had one more: 70% less plastic than comparable products, for buyers who read the back. The design had to carry all four without a word of decoration, which is the whole skill of private-label work. The pack went to print in 2015 and VersaPet kept us on for four more years of packaging, line after line.
(02) The work
What we did
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01
Concepts on the real dieline
Several directions, each built around different cat imagery, shown flat and on the shelf next to the competitors. The chosen concept put one prominent cat on the front so the category reads from across the aisle.
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02
Inside No Name's rules
The brand's yellow field, black type and no-nonsense tone kept exactly; the product's benefits carried by short bullet lines and the image, not by decoration.
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03
Front for the shelf, back for the reader
The front says what it is and why it is better in three lines. The back explains the product in a clear, easy-to-read layout, with the environmental benefits displayed where a label-reader looks.
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04
Bilingual and print-ready
English and French text placed, mandatory elements checked, artwork delivered on the manufacturer's template with bleed and barcode, released to VersaPet and to the printer.
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05
Ten lines over four years
The same team went on to design VersaPet's own and private-label packs through 2019: Special Kitty, Bare Necessities, Every Day Pet, Extra Care, Odor Destroyer, Odour Beater, Litter Purrfect, a PetStore activated-carbon bag, a litter-box bag and the Giant Value line.
(03) The result
The result
10 product lines
- The No Name pack went to print inside the brand's rules and with the product's claims legible from the shelf.
- VersaPet kept coming back: nineteen packaging invoices and ten product lines between January 2015 and January 2019.
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