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Annual OTC Package Design Gallery: Part 1

Each year, Healthcare Packaging evaluates an array of over-the-counter product packaging designs, assessing the pros and cons from a user perspective.

Kids Stress Relief

This year’s gallery featured many calming and minimalist aesthetics, signifying a consumer looking for relief at home and work—outside of the clinical setting.


Trends on the shelves

  • While perhaps not pandemic-related (with formulation, package design and commercialization often taking years), there was a notable increase in stress-fighting, anti-anxiety, and calming products, even for children.
  • Blues, greens, and serene imagery were featured more prominently than last year.
  • The minimalist trend continued with whitespace on labels and cartons, and casual, quippy copy directed at consumer.
  • Larger mainstream brands used nature-inspired images and touted few ingredients or “what’s absent” from the product.
  • More recyclable packaging and instructions featured.

Garden of Life Kids Stress ReliefKids Stress Relief

Pros

  • A shrink sleeve makes the most of the real estate, offering founder’s story, icons for expected effects, and symbols for gluten-free, recyclability, renewable energy use, and more
  • Calming sea and cloud images; suggested use lets parents know daily dosage
  • Square jar stands out on shelf; wide mouth child-resistant (CR) lid was easy to open

Notes

  • The sleeve was a bit curved on the bottom of two panels, which caused copy to distort slightly but it remained legible
  • Customers would presumably need to remove the sleeve before recycling





Olly Goodbye Stress Gummies

Screen Shot 2021 06 04 At 2 18 51 Pm

INTRODUCING! The Latest Trends for Life Sciences at PACK EXPO Southeast
The exciting new PACK EXPO Southeast 2025 unites all vertical markets in one dynamic hub, generating more innovative answers to packaging challenges for life sciences products. Don’t miss this extraordinary opportunity for your business!
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INTRODUCING! The Latest Trends for Life Sciences at PACK EXPO Southeast