Our Thinking
The World Through our Lens
Kaleidoscope is a CPG packaging design and prototyping agency headquartered in Chicago. We’re makers, thinkers, and opinionated observers of everything packaging. Here’s what’s on our minds — from design trends and sustainability to the forces reshaping consumer goods. For a deeper look at our capabilities, visit: strategy, packaging design, and prototyping.
Latest Perspectives
June 11, 2026
We’ve spent the summer watching how brands would handle America 250. Here’s who brought the fireworks and what it says about seasonal packaging strategy.
How Long Can You Scream?
Once upon a time all a brand needed to do was attract attention to itself by pointing out the frailties of any given category, scream it from the rooftops and, hey-presto, you were a provocative upstart brand.
Foundation of Success
Most categories, at some point in time, have been impacted and influenced by consumers’ changing interests or needs.
Bootstrap Your Sneakers
With the growing breadth of variety, is there room for all these products to compete at shelf and in consumers’ minds? Can they all be successful? While consumers will never abandon their beloved brands, there is always room for small batch, “hand-crafted” niche products that consumers love to discover and share.
Where is Your Consumer?
Too often companies look at customer acquisition too narrowly and place them into two categories: retail-only or direct-to-consumer.
Eating Your Own Dog Food
While this may sound gross, dogfooding-or eating your own dog food-is a way for brands to use their own products and services in real-world situations and test for quality control or other issues. This mindset is vital to the success of challenger style startups.
Why Your Story Isn’t Enough
The theory of disruptive innovation posits that incumbent brands cannot (or choose not to) serve their entire market and instead focus on their most profitable consumers at the high-end, resulting in niche markets of underserved consumers.
Turning Negatives into Positives
When it comes to brands, I believe the successful ones will add benefits to their consumers’ lives rather than overly focusing on the setbacks.
Keep it Fresh: CPG Innovation for Our Next Normal
As consumers become more accustomed to a predominantly quarantined lifestyle, companies must solve new challenges to maintain their growth while attracting new consumers. Whether it’s embracing meals at home or reaching out to local grocers, CPG brands have a huge opportunity to continually shape and redefine their relevance for the future.
Disinfecting Brand Behavior
We are experiencing real changes in consumer behavior and online shopping, so we must support consumers with true brand solutions.
Going Digital
Embracing empathetic communication is what allowed us to adapt so successfully. We felt secure in ourselves and our capabilities.
Finding Calm in the Chaos
We, as leaders, are faced with very tough questions. Will we act first for ourselves or others, will we rise to the challenge or shrink from it? Just as importantly, will we focus on the chaos or the calm?
Moment of Truth
In light of recent changes, there are rich opportunities for both brands we are not so familiar with and our go-to love brands alike.