Twenty years of shelf, in writing.
Editorial · POV
Working notes on FMCG packaging, retail strategy, and the brands that earn the shelf they sit on. Written by Morice Kastoun, founder and creative director. New pieces published when there is something worth saying.
Why most supplement brands look identical.
The vitamins aisle is a sea of white, blue and green. The category has trained itself to look the same. Here is what to do about it.
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Heritage rebuild. When to keep, when to burn.
Heritage equity is the hardest asset to manufacture and the easiest to throw away. A working rule for what stays and what goes.
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Coles, Woolworths, Chemist Warehouse. What they actually want to see.
After twenty years pitching packs to major retailers, a few patterns are clear. What category managers reward, what they reject, and how design changes the conversation.
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Pet wellness is the next supplement category.
What happened in human supplements is now happening in pet. The brands that win the next decade are starting to look like premium consumer products, not vet shop products.
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Recyclability now has a price tag. Design accordingly.
From this financial year, APCO fees are eco-modulated. Hard-to-recycle packaging will cost more to put on shelf. Sustainability just moved from the brand deck to the P&L.
ReadHow to brief a packaging designer.
The brief decides the outcome long before the first sketch. Here is what a good brief actually contains, what to leave out, and the one-page template we send to every new client.
ReadWhat makes packaging win on Coles and Woolworths shelves.
Twenty years of shipping into Australian supermarkets, distilled. The patterns that separate the packs category managers list from the ones they replace at the next review.
ReadHow much does packaging design cost in Australia.
The honest cost bands, tier by tier. What drives the number up, what hides in the fine print, and how to know you are paying for value rather than overhead.
ReadDigital versus print image quality. The rules that actually matter.
The three numbers everyone gets wrong, the file formats that break print, and the prepress checklist we run before any pack ships to the manufacturer.
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