Studio Spotlight: Smith Design

Smith Design creates strategy-based visual solutions for leading consumer brands. The studio's core competency is brand identity and package design. They provide a wide range of services including strategy & positioning, structural and graphic design, promotional design, sales materials, POP, corporate identity and  interactive design. Their clients include Unilever Foods, Rubbermaid, Hain Celestial Group, DCI Cheese, Discovery/Planet Green,  Johanna Foods, Bartons Chocolates, among others.

I've had the pleasure of knowing the talented and friendly folk at Smith Design. Their work for national brands is class-defining and truly sets the standard for design excellence in consumer branded products.

UPDATE:

In response to some comments on this post, I'm adding some facts and background to clarify.

Smith Design has been creating and updating brand identities for long-established brands for over 30 years. Their work has impacted household names like Popsicle, Skippy's peanut butter and Breyer's ice cream. Keeping these identities fresh and relevant is not a simple design challenge. Not too many studios in the US are capable of the strategic and design skills required to satisfy the needs of brands that have been around for decades, with enormous brand equity behind their 'looks'.

From my personal experience, in many cases designing for national brands is much more difficult than small niche brands. There are multiple design considerations to consider when designing for a long-standing brand with limited flexibility. These brands require smaller incremental changes over longer periods of time, versus the cool, new brand that can afford to do something cutting-edge to make an impact.

In spite of this, Smith Design still manages to push the envelope in a change-resistant climate, encouraging their clients to take bolder design steps in the design of their branding and packaging.

Thanks for reading and commenting on the blog - we encourage you to share your opinions!

More images follow...

Comments

[Martolik]

cliè_clèohttp://www.paglieri.it/it/1/1/famiglia/Cleo_Idratazione/

[Paul Lavender]

I agree most of this work is bland middle of the line. You should have spotlighted a company like Pure Equator in Nottingham England www.pure-equator.com.

[Kristan Hoffman]

I really like the Clie and Mario Batalli work. The Breyers looks stunning here, but not on shelf b/c someone (probably not Smith) cluttered the package with additional messages and colors.

As for the rest, I can see why some people don't consider them spotlight-worthy, but I also see Yael's point and know from experience at my firm that designing for mainstream consumer brands is very different from designing these beautiful niche packages that tend to be in high-end or specialty markets. I think Smith, like Coho, has produced some nice work that looks far better than competitors on shelf, even if it doesn't maybe seem as beautiful as other things we show on the Dieline.

[Dave Braden]

I couldn't agree more with the Smith Design 'Update' comments. As an owner of a small SF design firm, The Engine Room, that builds & revitalizes both specialty and large-market brand IDs, I feel that designers who provide analysis on a strictly 'visual' or 'cutting-edge' kind of level are not considering an enormous part of the design process for the targeted consumer. We all enjoy our dream projects where we can drive the creative entirely, but the greater creative challenge from my experience, lies in a large-market brand ID revitalization, where the visual aspect is one of many considerations. Factor in brand equity, the need for greater accessibility, channeling focus-group intelligence, far more feedback/revisions and we've got a different ball game. While some of these case studies aren't always museum showpieces, they certainly deserve respect. Why? Because not all designers can do this kind of work. It is an acquired skill that entails not only very good design skills, but also very good skills in strategic thinking -- and patience:). My firm handles primarily specialty/niche brand work, but I know from experience that the larger brands are a very different way of designing. And my guess is that it's much easier for a large-brand designer to cross over into a niche space than it is the other way around.