Package Design - January/February 2013 - 36

FIELD NOTES

Sweetheart of a Snack
Can the right
packaging make
olives a cool
on-the-go treat?

THE PRODUCT
With its silver, standup pouch, Oloves aims to change the way consumers
think of snacking and olives. Recognizing that it can be difficult to eat olives
on-the-go in their traditional packages—bottles and cans, Oloves took a
different approach. The brand uses a silver foil, stand-up pouch to maintain
the fruit’s flavor and freshness without the need for excess liquid.
Each package contains 12 to 14 pitted, Mediterranean olives, which
works out to be about 50 calories per pack or more accurately, two 26-calorie servings. The standup pouch with its deep-tear notch makes it easy to
open even in confined places, such as the economy section on an airplane.
The pack is such a good fit for in-flight dining that, Oloves founder Matt
Hunt reports, it’s now being served by United, Continental and JetBlue. It’s
also sold at Barnes and Nobles, BJ’s, Cost-Plus Markets, H-E-B stores and
online at Amazon.com, where the majority of reviewers are obviously smitten’ with Oloves and its packaging.
But what do package designers think?

The market is flooded with snacks
that provide no nutritional value, but
along comes an easy-open pack of
healthy olives with only 50 calories!
Olove the idea! [pun intended]
The packaging contains a graphic of
two olives forming a heart and is an
inventive method of further strengthening the brand’s identity. The front of the
package possesses a salubrious feel, but
the scarcity of nutrition facts is a missed
opportunity to further sell the product
to the consumer.
Dawn Pennacchia, creative director at Ideahappy

THE VERDICT
Oloves is a great idea with a powerful
positioning. The lovely package with a
memorable and powerful illustration on
the front delivers the brand’s message
and definitely stands out.
What I really love about this package
is the brand identity system. It’s so
lovely designed and so flexible that it
can clearly differentiate flavors by
changing a single color.
Andreas Kioroglou, founder/creative director of
Matadog Design

Loving olives, I’m drawn to this
healthy snack alternative—the pouch
pack fits perfectly in the category for
36

january/february 2013

calorie count and convenience. And the
branding is fun and fresh.
The pair of olives wrapped with the
ribbon to suggest a heart shape works
well, but the typography could be more
distinctive to visually communicate the
“love” part of the word.
At first glance, I wondered how easy
it would be to eat from the pouch. If I
hadn’t read the back panel copy to find
it is liquid-free, that still would have
been a concern but not one that would
deter me from purchasing.
Sandra A. Krasovec, principal, Krasovec Design,
and associate professor at the Fashion Institute of
Technology’s Packaging Design Department

The packaging for Oloves is clean yet
quirky. I liked how the design has the
olives in the heart shape— a nice tie in
with heart health— and how the color
variations quickly differentiate the products. But I believe some customers may
have to take a moment to figure out the
name, Oloves. PD
Lisa Edwards, package design manager at Belk
Department Stores

Want to have your package design
highlighted in this column or comment on future, spotlighted package
designs? Contact Linda Casey at
linda.casey@stmediagroup.com.
Package Design - January/February 2013

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