Black can be

so canine chic.

Merrick Pet Care developed a very hip, very sexy  package design & brand for their new line of high-protein, grain free dog foods called Before Grain or B.G. The palette was completely open and their agency’s Creative Director went to town - Uptown is really the case here. The product was formulated to contain premium, superfood ingredients like acai berries - Foods that help fight free radicals and yes, dogs need it too. Therefore, developing a sophisticated and premium look & feel was in order. Nothing is too good for Fido.

Here are some other great examples

of package design targeted to the four-legged friends in your life.

Of course, I have to do some shameless self-promotion and share with you a brand I had designed and developed a few years ago with a dog-themed brand essence (DirtyDogs bath & body products). It was so much fun developing the positioning, brand architecture, and overall packaging structure and design.

My goal was to design this with a high-end, yet modern design look

& feel in mind that you would feel good about buying for yourself.

I carefully chose packaging materials with a hand-made component to it such as specialty papers & substrates, and natural packaging structures. The product was sold in specialty boutique stores throughout the west coast from Los Angeles to Portland, OR.

I love this brand (Bit o Luv) for its philosophy on dogs. They created dog treats using high-quality ingredients. They’ve developed USDA approved and American-made dog treats - A loving gesture for all the unconditional love and loyalty they give us.  It’s good enough for people to eat, but specially formulated for dogs.

Doesn’t that just touch your heart? I guess I’m just a sucker for that emotional experience, as well as a sucker for the whimsical brand identity and packaging they’ve developed for their brand. It’s playful, child-like brand character are well integrated into all their touchpounts. The website is worth a visit just to see the animation and company background.

I can’t do this segment without feature my lil luv bugs -

Oscar & Meyer. They are my inspiration for designing and admiring the great package design you see here.

I’d like to continue this

segment because there is so much great content out there

on this subject.

Send us some of your examples and we can feature it on this site. Email us the information.

Thanks for reading!

Oops, just repeating what this brand is

built on - crap!

More officially, Dog Poo Bags is all about containers for your dogs excrement, hopefully to encourage you to pick it up like one should anyways. This company has capitalized on the fact that there’s always that one person that’s not motivated enough to pick up after their pooches unmentionables, so they’ve made it very easy & very cool via this “to-go” structure with pre-chosen dog image branded on the bag. BTW, there’s 16 different dogs to choose from, with varying bag & poo sizes from Daschunds to Great Danes.

The outer packaging is just as handsome and well designed as the inside structure. Sleek, clean, black and white color palette with just the right amount of canine cues to clearly catch your eye.

How cool is that to have a customized-branded dog crap container? As their saying goes,

“Shit happens - just be prepared.”

Words to live by.

Developed by a design studio in the UK, Fuse Studio, it was a proposal for a client and we’re not sure if it ever hit the shelves. Either way, I like the clean, contemporary colors along with its straightforward architecture and bold nomenclature. Always nice to see some fresh ideas from overseas.