|
|
2009 Annual Design Review
Packaging
|
|
Best of Category
JOHNSON
&
JOHNSON
FIRST
AID KIT
HARRY ALLEN’S FIRST AID KIT for Johnson & Johnson is a home safety product with such satisfying, clean design that leaving it unused feels like gross negligence, even when negligence is the reason for its use.
With a siren blaring outside, Harris snatched the kit at its subtly concave, integrated handle, tucked it under his arm, and made for the doors. “It’s just got so much confidence and singularity, plus it looks like a Joseph Beuys character,” he said. “You want to grip it there at that grab point and go!”
For Isley, the kit was indicative of a broader return to form at Johnson & Johnson. “A design like this shows they’re reinvesting themselves a bit, putting new care into their products and thinking hard about the product lifecycle.” The jurors also respected the kit for what it wasn’t: an idea spawned by committee. “The design,” said Isley, “goes far beyond slapping on some spiffy graphics for the sake of showing the kids you’re with it.”
In conversation, Allen said his team strove to create something iconic. That goal was faithfully served by minimal, yet instantly recognizable graphics: Johnson & Johnson’s name running up the kit’s red profile and a bright red cross just below the grab point. “You knew what this meant before you could read,” Brebner said, pointing to the cross. “It’s innate; it’s universal.” If the panel’s admiration had one caveat, it was a lightweight cardboard belly belt that provided a pictographic inventory of the Johnson & Johnson products within, but that disserved design purity.
Some packaging entries were not honored because they lacked conventional competition—for example, a MacBook customer likely decided on a MacBook before setting foot inside the Apple Store, so its cardboard box probably performed little salesmanship. With this kit, Johnson & Johnson, now elevates itself to Apple territory. Johnson & Johnson’s Band-Aids entered the lexicon as a proprietary eponym; this kit has the same possibility of success. Soon, drugstore shoppers won’t be looking for a first aid kit; they’ll be looking for the First Aid Kit.
Design Harry Allen Design (New York)
Client Johnson & Johnson, Inc. |
|
