Thumb-Stopping Packaging for Sugar Cosmetics

Client: Sugar Cosmetics

Services: Branding & Packaging Design

Key Requirement

The packaging must:

1. Be youthful; aimed at 18-25 years-old

2. Establish the brand as premium

3. Distinct, expressive & versatile

The Problem

SUGAR has kept its youthful customer persona at the centre of their strategy and this is probably one of the most fundamental reasons for their success so far.

Given that the company’s growth lay in getting mass customers to upgrade or luxury customers to try something less expensive, SUGAR’s challenge was to establish itself as a premium brand. It was a challenger brand and they had to look and feel distinctly different yet maintain the familiarity of the cosmetic aesthetics.

Strategy

Opposite HQ’s strategy for the brand was simple create “thumb-stopping” packaging that becomes synonymous with the brand in cluttered online and offline environments. Aware that the brand needed to look and feel distinctly different from the prevailing minimal and predominantly black aesthetic, Opposite went for a bold, graphic route for its illustrations.

Rather than equivocate with existing players, they decided to embrace the new dynamic – “Screen was more important than the shelf, the packaging was more important than the logo.”

The Approach

The unique low-poly illustration style was adapted to make the packaging more expressive. In a market full of minimal and bland products, it was designed to be the key identifier for the brand.

Sugar has expanded from less than 10 products to 200+ products and counting and the packaging was designed to match the ambition of the brand. The packaging system is versatile across form-factors and categories, while maintaining just the right amount of cohesiveness and their signature distinctiveness.

The Design

The expressive packaging aesthetic is made in a unique low-poly illustration style. It is a graphic route where simple geometric shapes are used to create angular compositions. In a market full of minimal and black aesthetics, Sugar's packaging is chic, sophisticated and bold - everything that Sugar's customer aspires to be.

It is now easy to spot a Sugar retail display from anywhere in the mall – just look for life-sized, backlit renditions of their well-recognised packaging cartons. These became the show stoppers.