The popularity of on-demand food and ingredient delivery sites, such as seamless and Blue Apron, has signaled a shift in the way consumers approach mealtime. Time-crunched consumers turn to these services for convenience, often at the expense of nutrition. Pak'd was born from a passion to provide kids with well-balanced school lunches. The Chicago start-up makes lunch easy for busy families by delivering fresh and nutritious lunches directly to their doorsteps.

Anthem partnered with Pak’d to develop custom structural packaging for their official launch in 2016. First and foremost, functionality of the packaging was of key importance in order to cater to lunches that are fully customized. The packaging also needed to reflect the brand personality and add excitement to kids lunch experience.

Anthem audited e-commerce channels, grocery stores and reviewed trends to identify key design opportunities for Pak’d. The designers then ideated a range of structural design solutions that were modular, distinctive and designed to survive the lunch journey from backpack to school lunchroom. The team conducted a customized insight workshop to test prototypes with parents and kids, and gain insights to optimize the packaging design.

Research found that the structural design for Pak’d has great potential to become the next buzz-worthy lunch item, with a strong appeal for children. The modular packaging format allows for lunches to be created and assembled quickly by parents, and gets kids excited to expand the variety of foods they will eat.

“When Pak’d came to Anthem, we knew that any packaging solution should appeal to both parents and kids, be fun and also functional,” say Pak’d co-founders Rebecca Sholiton and Nate Cooper. “Anthem was able to take our team through a process that blended creativity, customer analysis and industry research to find a solution that works for both of our customers. The final design is integral to our operational and strategic advantage.”