Phornnaphan Herbal Toothpaste

Designer: Dusadee Lamkijja
Designer / illustrator: Chanwut Hothai
Business Consultant: Nongluck Lapanun
Coordinator#1: Satayu Homthongsathaporn
Coordinator#2: Thayapat H
Location: Thailand
Project Type: Produced
Client: Community Enterprise Phornnapphan
Product Launch Location: Thailand
Packaging Contents: Toothpaste
Packaging Substrate / Materials: Plastic Tube, Cardboard
Printing Process: Digital Printing

As a packaging designer, I always have an idea of how to use my profession to help society. The opportunity came by being invited to join the project of the Ministry of Industry to help design and develop Thai SMEs products, I was delighted and decided to join. In the whole project, more than 30 SMEs participated and many designers participated in this project. The designers can choose SMEs by themselves. For me, I have criteria for selecting SMEs to work with, they must be a small business that does not have much capital, using locally grown ingredients and workers from the community to create jobs and generate income for the community. This is where the packaging design project “Phornnaphan Herbal Toothpaste by Dusadee Lamkijja”

Brand Story: The brand name “Phornnaphan” in Thai means every plant has its good actives, like a wonderful blessing that we can bring these properties to produce many herbal products. The entrepreneurs know Thai traditional medicine, herbs, medicine, and pharmaceuticals. Using herbs that are grown by themselves and herbs grown by people in the community processed into various products for sale by selling them at community shops, tourist attractions and, homestays. In the community of entrepreneurs located by the sea, Chanthaburi Province, Thailand, most customers are tourists. During this period, tourism has been sluggish due to the pandemic situation, the strategy is adjusted to sell online and find a new audience from C to B group up to B, B+, or A if possible.

“Phornnaphan Herbal Toothpaste” Phornnaphan herbal toothpaste was begun by the owner who has problems with gums and teeth, therefore, came up with a formula from the herbs such as streblus asper leaves, guava leaves, cloves, and cuttlebone to use by himself and use in the family. It works well and helps gums and teeth stronger, treats root canal, and can stop bad breath. According to feedback, the owner decides to develop, produce and sell to the market. ฺBut with location obstacles and budget constraints they used standard locally available tubes with sticker labeling. The sales are not very high.

Creative Concept “White Teeth with Herbs” I have the intention to keep the packaging cost practical and the same as the current cost so the entrepreneurs can use it for real business. The total cost including toothpaste, the tube, the shrink film, and the box cost must be around 20 baht. The production volume per batch is about 100-500 tubes. From this production, it is not possible to redesign the total look of the tubes. Because the tube factory in Thailand requires 5,000 tubes as a minimum quantity.

The concept “White Teeth with Herbs” comes from teeth that are white, beautiful, and strong as ceramics from herbal ingredients in toothpaste.

For the toothpaste tube, we want both tube and cap to be pure white like color of ceramics and use herbal drawings inspired by the elaborate Thai ancient houseware patterns. The shape of a sea wave clings from the mouth of the tube imply the Chanthaburi sea which the toothpaste manufacturing site is located. The design can depict the identity of the community while the waves are intertwined, the leaves of Siamese rough bush, guava leaves, cloves, and cuttlebone to convey Thainess entrepreneurship. In addition, the waves burst into bubbles on the sides, like bubbles of toothpaste. The chosen color scheme is from Benjarong, traditional five-colored Thai ceramics, consisting of blue, green, and yellow-orange.

The box used for packing is white. Made into a hexagonal cardboard box and cap to keep a ceramic concept. The pattern on the box is similar to the tube. The box can be turned to show at many angles and can be stitched together to form a continuous pattern. The pattern of the box will use the calculation of the unfolded paper to make the box economy cut, not larger than the size of A4 paper, which will help reduce the production cost of the entrepreneurs a lot.

What’s Unique?
This is social work, that our design team will always put our true hearts into every piece of work. It would be difficult for SMEs to find professional packaging designers. So, after the packaging design is complete we feel great that SMEs will get an impactful opportunity for their business. Their smiles reflect the happiness and encouragement to develop even better products along with using the new packaging designs.