OVERVIEW
First aid had become a stagnant category filled with serious products that only spoke to those moments when things go wrong. That’s where serial entrepreneur, Eric Ryan, saw an opportunity to disrupt the First Aid aisle with a new fun, playful brand that spoke to life’s adventures not mishaps.
Early in the project, he decided to collaborate with two agencies : Prime Studio and the branding firm Partners and Spade (now known as Mythology - the same agency we had worked with on Harry's). These three teams collaborated closely to turn the Welly vision into reality.
Welly
WHAT WE DID
Structural Packaging, Manufacturing Liaison
DESIGN TEAM
Stuart Harvey Lee, Jochen Schaepers, Michael Bambino, Carla Biasotto, Ben Oppenheimer
BRIEF
First Aid for when Fun Wins
The title of page one of our design brief from Welly stated “The packaging is just as important as the bandage.” As soon as we saw that we knew that this was a project we would enjoy sinking our teeth into.
The brief went on to call for us to develop an iconic, modular packaging system that would empower people to feel better prepared. The vision for Welly centered around breathing life into the first aid experience - both at retail and during use.
How can first aid inspire people instead of scare them?
How can the product experience be a joy rather than a pain?
It was an ambitious idea that focused on better products, aspirational messaging, thoughtful packaging, easier navigation in-store and an enhanced at-home experience.
PROCESS
Designing for a life fully lived
We began by studying the current landscape of the shelf aisle to understand what opportunities there were and how Welly might fit in. We also researched the end-user experience after purchase - Where do people store their bandages and ointments? Do people travel with first aid items? How easy is it to find the right bandage when your kid is sitting on your knee crying and bleeding?
All the teams had agreed that primary packaging was the going to be the most impactful aspect of this new brands launch. At Prime Studio we were considering form factors, suitable materials and ease of use at the same time that Partners and Spade were honing the brands positioning.
Their tongue-in-cheek approach helped feed into our design thinking and packaging explorations. According to them - bandages weren't just for cuts and scrapes anymore - they were Bravery Badges. Signs of a life well lived.
Because fun isn't always safe - but it's always fun!
Prime Studio was the perfect ID partner for this project. They understood our vision immediately and executed it with the perfect blend of creativity and production pragmatism.
ERIC RYAN
CO-FOUNDER, WELLY
Throughout the structural development we had to consider many different requirements. We knew we wanted to incorporate modularity but the question was how much should it drive the structural design? Then there was the question on how iconic the design should be – we wanted something instantly recognizable but not at the expense of efficiency and ease of use.
Finally, appropriate materials selection was high on the list – we knew we wanted to develop structural packaging that was more premium and consumer friendly than a paperboard box but the question was just how premium was appropriate - and we wanted the package to be as sustainable as possible.
Tin quickly surfaced as a potentially disruptive material - it has a long history in the First Aid world which, unfortunately, had disappeared for the most part. We wanted to bring back that magic and develop a package which people would actually repurpose and reuse rather than recycle. Tin is a sustainable material choice and is able to be decorated in a multitude of ways as well as being waterproof and sturdy enough to throw in a purse or glove compartment so it was a great fit for our needs.
When you really need a bandage nobody wants to open up a container to find jumbled up bandages. Reliably organized and accessible product was a high priority and we conducted a wide exploration of internal product organization before settling on a variety of custom molded pulp inserts which also fit into our sustainable materials narrative.
Reduce, Reuse, Recycle are commonly accepted as the goals for sustainable packaging and of those three Reuse is the ultimate goal.That’s why a bandage refill system was in play for Welly from Day one. However we had a sneaking suspicion that people wouldn’t want to throw their colorful tins in the recycling and would repurpose them for other uses. Our hope was proven right with people using their tins as organization for screws and nails, kids crayons and even travel snacks and posting about it online (if you have a novel use for your welly tins we’d love to hear about it).
THE RESULT
Really Welly Prepared
Since their initial launch in Target in 2019 Welly products have been both a Mom and Kids favorite. The tin packages as well as the bandages themselves are beautifully decorated with color and pattern to stick out on the shelf as well as on your body. In addition to the tins stacking and offering product wayfinding the thoughtful product organization has been a really well received feature and Welly products are now available in over 44,000 stores including all major retailers and pharmacy chains.
We continue to work with Welly as their industrial design partner of choice and have developed multiple additional SKU's for them since their launch - including large size First Aid kits with optimized interior organization and e-commerce specific refills and paperboard cartons.
We also developed the structural packaging solution for Welly's move into OTC medications. Welly Remedies goal was to shift the way people approach “sick care” to “self-care” by providing a holistic assortment of proactive and reactive health care products that are science-backed and free from the things you don’t need – synthetic dyes, artificial flavors, talc and parabens.
And we also designed the structural packaging for the Welly skincare line - drawing from the iconic Visual Design Language we developed for them.
CPG giant Unilever acquired a majority stake in Welly in 2021 - just two years after launch.
