OUGD603 EXTENDED PRACTICE: NOOTROPICS INITIAL SECONDARY RESEARCH

To start off the research I wanted to find out what kind of design work was already on the market, to see our competitors, and what kind of packaging and branding was being used for the nootropics we have chosen.

Choline

As you can see from the below examples of existing Choline packaging, they only seem to be sold as capsules or tablets in bottles. This means there is definitely a gap in the market for powdered choline sold in sachets. The design work of these bottles are all pretty bad, with questionable typeface, colour, and image choices across all examples. There appears to be a common colour choice: yellow/beige/orange, which gives them a kind of sickly feeling. Green has also been interjected as a secondary colour in some places to make them appear more natural. Uppercase lettering has also been predominantly used for the name as well, which although makes it bold and legible doesn't come across very friendly. Images choices vary from plants, flowers, even apples in one case, again to make the product appear natural.

Theanine

As you can see from the below examples, there is a common theme between these and those for Choline packaging. Gold, orange, yellow, green, and blue are theme colours, very similar to those of Choline. Lowercase has taken the majority in these examples, which creates a softer approach, one that is less threatening and harsh. The only imagery that is on these bottles are a sun and a leaf, hinting at the natural qualities of this nootropic.

Tyrosine

Tyrosine examples take a slightly different appearance, with colours such as red and purple being used, as well as the common green, blue and orange. The addition of red and purple give it more of a bold, medicinal appearance, as they haven't even attempted to relate the nootropic to nature. They are also a lot simpler, with no imagery being used, which make it a lot more readable. What has been noticed on Tyrosine examples is that several of them use chemical compound illustrations as the imagery on the packaging, perhaps that of Tyrosine's exact chemical make up. However this makes the nootropic appear very chemically and unnatural.

Evaluation

From this initial research, what I noticed was that there are common colour themes that seem to keep coming up, or orange, green and blue, either to be bold or to appear natural. The overall design is also fairly poor, looking very medicinal and clinical most of the time, or going completely the other way and appearing way too natural. All of the packaging examples also have a lot of information on them, their labels are very full with text and images, and this can be a little overwhelming. What should be achieved in our groups designs should be more simplistic and calm, not to scare users.