by Anna Kniesly | Mar 9, 2026 | Brand Strategy, Conference Recap, CPG Trends, Inspiration, Packaging Design, Thought Leadership
What Expo West 2026 Told Us About the Future of CPG Packaging Our team spent the week walking the floor at Expo West, and several signals stood out about where food & beverage, and the brands behind it, are heading. Beyond individual products, the Expo West...
by Kaleidoscope Chicago | Jan 24, 2026 | Brand Strategy, Kaleidoscope, Packaging Design, Thought Leadership
January 24, 2026 There’s a pattern that shows up in CPG packaging projects more often than it should. A brand begins losing momentum in the market, sales soften, shelf presence feels weaker than it once did, and internal conversations eventually arrive at the...
by Kaleidoscope Chicago | Jan 16, 2026 | Brand Strategy, Kaleidoscope, Packaging Design, Sales and Influencer Kits, Structural Design, Thought Leadership
January 16, 2026 A packaging design brief is where projects succeed or fail. Not at the design review or at the retailer presentation. After 30 years of working with CPG brands across food, beverage, wellness, pet, and beauty, we’ve seen the same patterns repeat...
by Kaleidoscope Chicago | Jan 8, 2026 | Author, Brand Strategy, Kaleidoscope, Packaging Design, Prototyping, Structural Design, Thought Leadership
January 8, 2026 Most CPG brands treat packaging design and prototyping as two separate phases. You design first and then somewhere downstream you prototype. Files get handed off, a physical sample gets built, and everyone crosses their fingers that the original intent...
by Melissa Simmerman | Jul 2, 2025 | Brand Strategy, CPG Trends, Packaging Design
The Summer of Candy Salad is Upon Us Ah, summer. It’s a sweet, simple time of togetherness, full of wet swimsuits and sunscreen, campfires and fireflies, s’mores and hot dogs. Unless you work in CPG. Then it’s a full-on race to sell more of the...
by Melissa Simmerman | Jun 6, 2025 | Brand Strategy, Innovation, Packaging Design, Sustainability, Thought Leadership
The CPG Packaging Lifecycle Not to state the obvious, but we are packaging designers and have been for 30 years. We’ve long understood our responsibility to our clients and consumers—clarity, communication, the need to trigger a purchase decision—but our work...
