Stylogeny combining Conversational Brand-Voice Packaging × DTC 'Blanding'

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Style combination · Contrasts

Conversational Brand-Voice Packaging × DTC 'Blanding'

Same warm friendliness but opposite on density: fill the pack with voice instead of leaving it pale and empty.

From the research on Conversational Brand-Voice Packaging

Mix them and make something Conversational Brand-Voice Packaging DTC 'Blanding'

kinConversational Brand-Voice × DTC 'Blanding'
A sample layout drawn from the recipe: shapes from DTC 'Blanding', their arrangement from DTC 'Blanding', the finish from Conversational Brand-Voice Packaging. Not a real work, and not an image of either style.

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What each style brings

Each part of the design comes from the style with the stronger say in it, and each style gives at least two.

Conversational Brand-Voice Packaging DTC 'Blanding' / Millennial Minimalism

Type from DTC 'Blanding'

Conversational Brand-Voice Packaging avoids geometric sans: this is where the two pull against each other, which is the point of the contrast.

Colour from Conversational Brand-Voice Packaging
Form from DTC 'Blanding'
Composition from DTC 'Blanding'

Conversational Brand-Voice Packaging avoids generous white space: this is where the two pull against each other, which is the point of the contrast.

Surface from Conversational Brand-Voice Packaging

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The type

Open fonts standing in for each style’s own type, which is often hand-drawn or commercial.

Display · DTC 'Blanding'

Kin

Hanken Grotesk, standing in for Circular (Laurenz Brunner, Lineto, 2013)

Text · Conversational Brand-Voice Packaging

A packaging approach in which the pack becomes a stage for a human voice: informal, first-person copy fills the sides and back, set in lettering and custom type that look made by a person, beside a small mark. The visual signature, shared by both brands, is large, irregular, hand-made-looking type with copy as the main graphic material and a small logo. Innocent (UK) is lighter and friendlier, Oatly (Sweden) denser and plainer; Oatly's Forsman & Bodenfors system treated the pack as advertising space.

Inter; Conversational Brand-Voice Packaging used Oatly headlines and Oatly body text

03

The colours

The ground and leading colours come from Conversational Brand-Voice Packaging, with a counter-accent from DTC 'Blanding'. The ink reads on the ground at 4.5:1 or more.

Conversational Brand-Voice Packaging DTC 'Blanding' / Millennial Minimalism

  • #ffffff ground · 36%
  • #6b4f3a ink · 14%
  • #2f5d9b accent · 18%
  • #d27c5d accent · 14%
  • #8a8a86 accent · 10%
  • #f2e3a8 accent · 8%

As CSS

:root {
  --ground: #ffffff;
  --ink: #6b4f3a;
  --accent-1: #2f5d9b;
  --accent-2: #d27c5d;
  --accent-3: #8a8a86;
  --accent-4: #f2e3a8;
  --font-display: "Hanken Grotesk", sans-serif;
  --font-text: "Inter", sans-serif;
}

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The two styles

Large brown and blue lettering reading “late walks” sits above a shaggy brown-and-white dog bounding forward on a blue leash with its tongue out. A crescent moon, gray buildings, a fence, a streetlamp, puddles and blue foliage surround the dog on a textured cream background. 1998–present · Western Europe, Northern Europe, Global / networked Conversational Brand-Voice Packaging A packaging approach in which the pack becomes a stage for a human voice: informal, first-person copy fills the sides and back, set in lettering and custom type that look made by a person, beside a small mark. The visual signature, shared by both brands, is large, irregular, hand-made-looking type with copy as the main graphic material and a small logo. Innocent (UK) is lighter and friendlier, Oatly (Sweden) denser and plainer; Oatly's Forsman & Bodenfors system treated the pack as advertising space. A minimalist shopping homepage shows a sage-green water bottle with a loop handle beneath the large terracotta words “good days” on an off-white background. Small navigation links, search and shopping bag icons, and a pink “shop now” button surround the central product. 2012–2022 · North America, Global / networked DTC 'Blanding' / Millennial Minimalism The friendly, frictionless minimalism of 2010s direct-to-consumer start-ups, built for the phone screen, the Instagram feed and the unboxing. Lowercase geometric or neo-grotesque wordmarks, one muted signature colour such as millennial pink, sage or terracotta, seamless-backdrop product photography and chatty copy made mattresses, razors and suitcases look interchangeable, a sameness critics called 'blanding' before brands swung to colourful maximalism around 2021–2022.

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More combinations

With Conversational Brand-Voice Packaging

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