The Ativa brand redesign following the Office Depot OfficeMax merger made its technology products more approachable for the general consumer. Its largest product line, shredders, showcased the updated brand and marketing creative to communicate reliability and functionality with a clean, modern look. The updated logo shifted from a more casual yet dated feel with lowercase letters, rounded shapes and a heavy typeface to a minimalistic mark characterized by an all-caps approach, angular shapes and an overall lighter feel.
The package system had a good-better-best strategy and was color segmented by the shredder's cut-type— green for cross cut and teal for microcut. The lowest level packaging was a simple, two-color label applied only to the primary display panel on an otherwise direct-print box. The mid- and top-tiers included full-litho, full-color labels. Packages in the good and better tier were designed with a clean white feel, whereas the best tier shifted to a black package to exude a premium feel of luxury in a business machine. The top level also included a high-gloss, spot UV varnish and an overall soft-touch varnish to elevate the tactile element of the package.
As a leader in the shredders category across the industry, Office Depot had explored many versions of packaging over the years. The category is constantly evolving, and to maintain its competitive edge Office Depot needed to rethink its design to achieve a more effective shopping experience.
Additional packaging followed suit with the mid-tier shredders packaging in terms of design. The brand graphic elements, including the typography and background pattern, are consistent and unobtrusive. Secondary color palettes, as shown in the lanyards above, promote the fun, trendy tech colors of the products. In other categories, these colors are used to segment product by its attributes to make the shopping experience easier to navigate.
As with all other brand redesigns for the consolidated Private Brand architecture, the brand personality was explored through tools like the moodboard shown below.
A toolkit for each brand in the Office Depot Private Brand portfolio was created to communicate and regulate changes from old to new brand design. The intention of the toolkit, shown below, was to share and police the internal usage of assets and then to serve as a footprint for the full brand guidelines to be designed by an outside agency.
The Ativa experience on both of Office Depot's websites, consumer and contract, needed to be reimagined. The Ativa landing page had not been redesigned since its inception in 2004. First, the Private Brand Creative team mapped out the new experience via wireframe. The wireframe was reviewed with the Office Depot E-Commerce team to ensure proper adherence to guidelines and specifications. Once aligned, the new landing page experience was designed and reviewed collaboratively until final creative was passed to the E-Commerce team for development and execution.
Other marketing collateral, such as the catalog ads below, were designed to promote the new brand look and feel. These ads, for both consumer and contract channels, were displayed online as well as in the printed Big Books.
CREDITS:
Creative Director: Mary Sarlo Carmichael
Sr. Design Manager: Stephanie Dershow
Design Manager: Matthew Rothenberg
Designers: Mary Sarlo Carmichael, Matthew Rothenberg, Marie Holloway, Karla Butler, Felipe Hamame
Photographers: Mark Hickman, Angstrom Graphics, Kristine Evans
Copywriters: Mary Sarlo Carmichael, Aaron Stoklosa, Marlo Sollitto, Christa Sands
Sr. Production Manager: Carmine Longo
Production Manager: Maximus Kahng
Production Designer: Terry Coffy, Rodrigo Patino
Print Manager: Sharon Gross
Sr. Design Manager: Stephanie Dershow
Design Manager: Matthew Rothenberg
Designers: Mary Sarlo Carmichael, Matthew Rothenberg, Marie Holloway, Karla Butler, Felipe Hamame
Photographers: Mark Hickman, Angstrom Graphics, Kristine Evans
Copywriters: Mary Sarlo Carmichael, Aaron Stoklosa, Marlo Sollitto, Christa Sands
Sr. Production Manager: Carmine Longo
Production Manager: Maximus Kahng
Production Designer: Terry Coffy, Rodrigo Patino
Print Manager: Sharon Gross