Package Design - November 2013 - 21

in Haiti
no water is necessary. The mother opens
the pouch, and the child consumes it.
What's inside this package can curb
severe acute malnutrition. In this case,
it's much-needed nutrition for a sick
son. But this year, thousands of emaciated Haitian children will ingest this
miracle food, aptly called HopeGel,
because they see a bright sun graphic.
"We learned pretty quickly that
what's printed on our packaging is just
as important as what goes inside of it,"
says Dr. Nathan Feldman, co-founder of
EB Performance LLC in Boca Raton,
FL, with his partner Dan Schapiro.

Engaging design to boost hope
"When we launched HopeGel [in
2011], we were focused on getting the
ingredients right, and on our mission to
address worldwide malnutrition, but we
didn't really dwell on branding and
packaging," says Schapiro.
He and Feldman had worked with
food scientists to create the formulation
for HopeGel, a nutritional supplement
that's simple to consume (it can be
sipped or placed in feeding tubes,
unlike pastes or bars) and easy to distribute (it doesn't require refrigeration
and can be stored for up to a year).
HopeGel impressed Dr. Jeffrey Miller,

Since the project
began, more than
50,000 gel packets
have been produced
and delivered to Haiti.

an urologist who performs free surgeries
in Haiti. Miller was instrumental in
securing support of the Boca Raton
Regional Hospital Foundation, which
helps to fund the HopeGel project.
The product wasn't the problem;
perception was. "An early version of the
packaging had a clear pouch, and
another version was white and nameless," says Terri Goldstein, owner of The
Goldstein Group, a U.S.-based branding consultant. "A great hunger gel was
being received as if it was medicine-
kids weren't consuming it because the
design and packaging weren't engaging
to them."
Each year, The Goldstein Group
chooses a charity project to tackle, and

this year, its creative team was energized
by the possibility of turning EB Performance's mission into a milestone. "It's
not every day that we get to work on a
brand that can help save lives," Goldstein says.
Utilizing its Shelf Sight Sequence
process of applying color, shape and
symbol to a brand, The Goldstein Group
used bright colors, bold shapes and a
playful bird to underscore the HopeGel
theme of a "better, brighter day." The
firm, which works with brands such as
Bayer Healthcare and New World Pasta,
took a consumer-product approach to
the pro-bono project.
Instead of being viewed as medicinal, Goldstein says, HopeGel needed to
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