E004: Building a New Sleep Brand’s Product Packaging, With DTC Veterans

“They have just shown how packaging can be so much of a differentiator.”

What does a professional DTC packaging design process look like in practice?

Chris Ganz (Senior Creative Director, Trevi) sits down with the Winks team to tackle one of packaging’s hardest problems: standing out on a crowded shelf. The group debates naming, mascots, and color palettes before testing real designs on real families.

Chris opens with a full competitor audit, sizing up Ollie, Vicks, and Beam. Three distinct concepts turn into five packaging directions, each with its own typography and color story. The team weighs a winking semicolon against a plush sleep monster, and one child’s smile carries real weight.

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Iris

https://www.irisfinance.co/operators

Skio

https://9ops.co/skio-9operators

Omnisend

https://www.omnisend.com/9operators

Richpanel

https://9ops.co/richpanel

Runneth

https://9ops.co/motion-runneth

Aftersell

https://9ops.co/4i3bb5

Chapters

00:00:00 How to Design Packaging

00:09:40 The Competitive Audit

00:15:55 Three Design Territories

00:19:53 The Winking Semicolon

00:27:06 Option Two Goes Green

00:34:09 A Bold Circular Icon

00:39:47 Smiling Face Theory

00:47:28 The Sleep Monster

01:04:36 Why Custom Matters

01:06:37 Round Two Gets Real

01:21:50 The Focus Group Plan

01:28:05 Why Recognition Wins