Unpacking the Reasons: Why I Disagreed with the New Granola Packaging Design

Back when I had freelance work with Tasty Grains granola packaging, I felt that the packaging accomplished the business perspective—standing out in a market where there are a lot of competitors (supply) and not enough demand.

Fast forward a couple of months, it was a busy period with work, but the client stumbled into an issue. The name and logo they came up with, it wasn’t very SEO effective; ‘Tasty Grains’ was a pretty common name. While I have my perspective, my work scope for this is only packaging design. Ultimately, it was up to the client. And my concerns turn out to be true.

So, they had to revamp the packaging to accommodate the new branding strategy (TGZ logo, which in my opinion, is another issue). Since I was tied up with work, they had to go to another designer for this.

While I see there’s room for improvement in my design, it hits what the client is trying to achieve more than the current one. You can refer here to my design for Tasty Grains: https://ysfaye.wordpress.com/2023/04/10/first-behance-design/

I was genuinely shocked when I saw the new design. The packaging looks like it did not meet their business prospects at all for several reasons.

Here’s the new design by the other designer:

Not only did the design not stand out, but it also looked exactly like a Nestle product (when it wasn’t). In addition to the revamped packaging, the designer went as far as to boast about the perceived improvements, proudly mentioning their collaboration with Nestle. What’s more, they even adorned the back of the product with their copyright—a rather uncommon sight in the realm of food packaging. Such brazen self-promotion raises questions about the designer’s priorities and the integrity of their work.

“Packaging Proudly design and manufacturing” by Ezypak? If I were them, I would be ashamed to put this statement merely because the sentence itself is already grammatically incorrect. It should be “Packaging proudly designed and manufactured by Ezypak.”

The dullness, old school, and mass-produced look were off the target by a mile. In the end, what did it achieve? The business closed.