Canadian telecommunications, information technology, health, and security conglomerate TELUS needed standardized packaging for home service, do-it-yourself (DIY), and retail store use worldwide.

This complex, two-year-long project involved about a dozen contract manufacturers and other suppliers in pursuit of a single packaging system to satisfy the demands of multiple Telus departments.

We recommended specific packaging content, developed the form and function, and applied existing TELUS brand and graphic standards to surface graphic designs. Then, we worked with printers to prototype and test various forms to ensure that packaging is easy to open, pleasingly tactile, and showcases TELUS’s technology.

The design system is highly variable and meets several challenges: suitability for home DIY use, retail environment needs, and ease of design and fabrication for manufacturing companies worldwide, all while maintaining a consistent and whimsical brand experience. It had to be environmentally sustainable with no plastics but makeable globally with different manufacturing tolerances and abilities across factories, with no loss of the sophistication that home users and retail stores expect.

Our 75-page step-by-step guideline document walks manufacturing vendors through future package creation.