Case Study
Adjuvants Packaging System
I developed a scalable packaging system for Wilbur-Ellis adjuvant products and later extended the underlying approach to the Actives portfolio. The work used product-specific colors, clearer hierarchy and classification cues to make products easier to distinguish in warehouses and field operations.
The Challenge
The previous adjuvant packaging used a limited color palette and relatively small product names. In warehouse settings, similar cartons could be difficult to distinguish quickly, increasing the possibility of the wrong product being pulled.
Unlike consumer packaging designed primarily to stand out on a retail shelf, this system needed to work in an operational environment:
- Products were commonly stored in cartons and palletized
- Classification needed to remain visible
- Individual products needed stronger differentiation
- Labels and cartons had to support regulatory information
- The visual system needed to accommodate additional products
- Designs had to work across multiple package sizes and printer dielines
Turning product differentiation into an operational design system
My Approach & Contributions
I began with the operational problem rather than visual styling alone.
The resulting design system retained classification colors while adding a unique color treatment for individual products. Product names were substantially enlarged, and carton faces were designed to remain recognizable when stacked or viewed from a distance.
The design had to balance three levels of information:
- Product name for immediate identification
- Classification for portfolio organization
- Regulatory and usage information for compliance
Distinct cartons were created for major classifications, while labels reinforced the individual product identity.
The Results
The story is not simply that I redesigned boxes. It is that I used graphic design to solve a warehouse-recognition problem, then built rules that could support a growing technical portfolio.
The project transformed packaging from a mostly uniform collection into a functional identification system. It addressed an operational need while creating a more coherent and extensible product family.
The system included:
- Larger and more prominent product names
- Unique product color combinations
- Classification-specific carton structures
- Coordinated label and carton treatments
- Specialty-branded variants
- Expandable rules for future products
- Production-ready files across packaging formats
The adjuvant system was considered successful enough that the same problem-solving approach was later applied to Actives packaging. The work continued to require production stewardship as printer structures and carton files changed, and the solution proved readily adaptable to vendor requirements.
Let's Work Together!
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