Massachusetts, USA

Staples Design creates the packaging for Perk’s breakroom, kitchen, and restroom essentials by communicating at first with the users.

The Perk brand competes head-to-head with other providers of breakroom, kitchen, and restroom essentials that employees and visitors use on a daily basis, along with seasonal fare to mark the passage of the year, and specialty selections that support office culture and events.

In a category with such narrow profit margins, products are typically value-engineered to meet utility needs and sustainability targets.

Given these design constraints, the packaging itself can become a differentiating part of the brand experience.

This project involved the development of a communications system to unify the Perk offer. More importantly, it began with a question.

What if the packaging were a canvas that the brand could use to start a conversation with users?

These consumables are generally self-merchandising.

The project has been awarded a 2021 Good Design Award by The Chicago Athenaeum: Museum of Architecture and Design and The European Centre for Architecture Art Design and Urban Studies for its design.

Exterior surfaces of the package and product surfaces revealed through transparent thin-film wrappers both offered a design opportunity.

Could they act as billboards for the Perk brand to speak up?

This creative jumping-off point led to a brand development process where the personality of the Perk brand emerged through the process of giving it a voice.
“What would Perk say?” was an easier question to pose than answer.

After brainstorming iterations that included cringe-worthy discoveries of what didn’t work, the team coalesced around guard rails for writing stand-up for the Perk character.

Visual design explorations reflected the lightheartedness of the brand voice. A palette of light pastels used expressed in bold geometric forms and presented in repeat — across products in a pack, packs in a mix, and throughout the Perk signage systems — unified the visual language.

Cheeky calls to action, for products that don’t require them, juxtaposed against a backdrop of bright color fields, brought Perk personality not just to break rooms and cafeterias, but even inside cupboards or closets, where a friendly ‘hello’ can brighten someone’s day.

Project: Perk Breakroom Essentials Packaging System
Designers: Staples Design, Staples
Manufacturer: Staples