Bac&lt

Designed by Ziggurat Brands, United Kingdom.

Bac< packaging design: creating a brand with universal appeal

Bac< aims to become the brand that the 16.5 million Britons who suffer with back pain each year know they can trust to help alleviate that pain. The range is now available in selected Boots stores nationwide, www.boots.com and www.backpainhelp.com.

The bac< range comprises a back massager, shoulder brace, back brace and sacroiliac belt. It was designed by industrial product designers, Seymour Powell and experts from The London Spine Clinic on Harley Street. It is markedly different from other brands on the market in that as well as being highly effective, the products are also very stylish and discreet. Handsome, the company behind bac<, briefed Ziggurat to create a brand that would convey a range that was medically credible as well as functional, user-friendly and desirable. It required an easily recognisable, all-inclusive brand that would instil confidence and trust. The brand also had to speak to every man and woman and be as desirable to a 60-year old as it would be to an expectant mother or building site labourer. Ziggurat rose to the challenge with the creation of a brand name and logo. It also created a simple diagnostic tool in the form of an infographic to show sufferers the different areas of pain and which product they would need to treat it. “The choice of the name bac< was important,” says Keren House, Creative Director at Ziggurat. “The word is simple and yet it embraces every vertebrae in the back from top to bottom. Changing the ‘k’ to a ‘<’ makes the brand more individual and memorable.”

Her team also designed packaging for five products for each zone of back pain. “We used an androgynous image, to convey the unisex nature of the brand,” says House. “Shot at a three quarter angle, the image shows the natural curve of the back rather than the more gender-revealing trunk of the body.”

She continues: “Rather than distressing red or orange, we used a more calming and less challenging blue grid to show each zone of back pain. In addition, the on-pack language is not painful, it is positive and caring. It finds the balance between medical efficiency and approachability as it describes how the bac< products can help get lives back to normal again.”

House concludes: “Packaging has a significant influence on the purchasing decision and we are confident this stylish and minimalist brand design will stand out on the shelves and attract customers to the bac< range in Boots, as well as making a significant impact online.”

Handsome CEO, Mark Critchley agrees, saying: “Our bac< brand represented a few design challenges in that back pain does not discriminate, so it had to be all encompassing, but we are delighted with the results. It also speaks volumes about the quality product inside the packaging, which is high performing, medically efficient, trustworthy and stylish all at once.”