BIC Highlighter

Design: Michaela Fawcett
Project Type: Student Project
School: Vancouver Island University
Course: Package Design
Tutor: Nancy Pagé
Location: Nanaimo, Canada
Packaging Contents: Highlighters
Packaging Substrate / Materials: Recycled card stock, Paperboard
Printing Process: Digital printing

Project Description: The overall goal was to find an overly packaged product and redesign the package in a way that is more environmentally responsible. My aim was to design a package that is innovative, purposeful, and eco-friendly that eliminates the need for excess waste. The main goal was to take this BIC product and push the current packaging a step further by coming up with a unique and sustainable solution, all while sticking within the current branding of BIC.

Environmental Considerations: Ecologically responsible packaging should be simple to reuse and recycle, it should be well thought out in terms of physical properties, and should be something that plays a vital role in reducing our packaging footprint. With this in mind, I came up with the concept of designing a piece that is reusable, while prioritizing 100% recyclable materials. The targeted demographic for this product are teens and young adults attending school/university or has an office/teaching job. This target audience looks for what is easy, fun, and convenient for them. By creating a rectangular package that doubles as a supply holder, it gives this audience the opportunity to not only experience a long lasting product, but to experience a lasting package that they can enjoy.

People always like to see when companies are supporting causes or starting campaigns. BIC is a well known brand, which gives them a large platform for environmental issues worldwide. This was the perfect opportunity to turn this packaging into something more than just a product in a package. It was an opportunity to turn this packaging series into a campaign through BIC, called “Ecosolutions”. The aim was to create customs sets of 3, aligned to the “Ecosolutions” campaign, and each set having its own unique design.

Design Concept and Solutions: For this concept, the goal was to create a type of quality in the packaging through careful design to encourage consumers to want to use the package for its dual purpose. By adding a flap at the back of the box containing all text, it gives the consumer an opportunity to remove it. Once removed, the package looks more like an actual supply holder, and they can enjoy the nice, simple pattern covering the box. It is important that customers are able to see the product they are buying, this is why a square die-cut was added to front of the package – to expose the bottoms of the highlighters. It is also essential to add the highlighter colours to the packaging, so it included strips of colour on the front and sides of the package to further advertise the striking colours of the highlighters. In terms of typography, emphasis is given to the brand name and campaign, along with the subheads of text. A san-serif font was used to stay within the consistency of BIC’s branding.

Each pack has a different pattern; mountains, trees and plants. Each of these patterns subtly evokes a feeling of remembering nature and the environment around us. The opacity is bumped down and muted on most of the icons to emphasize the look of the natural, recycled paperboard. Some icons include a vibrant pop of colour swatched from the highlighters to make for an exciting, eye-catching pattern, which helps to attract the desired audience. By using a simple recycled material, it crafts a light weight packaging that is not only eco-friendly, but it also captures the whole, “keep our environment natural” theme.