Nestlé Polo
Can we update an iconic package without losing what made it distinct?
2016
Industrial Design
About
Polo (“The Mint with the Hole”) is one of Nestlé's most recognizable confectionery brands. The hole isn't just a product feature; it's the entire personality. When Nestlé approached FITCH to develop a more premium pack, the challenge was finding ways to feel new without losing the playfulness and iconicity that made the brand.
As the industrial designer at FITCH’s Mumbai studio, I developed a range of packaging concepts that played with the brand's existing visual language - the shape, the existing pack, the quirky tone - while exploring different formats, materials, and mechanisms. All concepts were modeled in Rhino and rendered in Keyshot.
Design Routes
Pocket Pack
A simple, pocket-able pack. Twist to dispense one mint; the pack springs shut automatically.
Flip Top
A translucent plastic flip top, letting the mints speak for themselves.
Round Tin
A simple tin with a form derived directly from the shape of the mint itself.
Round Tin with Insert
An alternative version of the round tin, with a translucent colored plastic insert.
Mint Stick
Inspired by the mechanism of a glue stick - twist the base, and a mint rises to the top. Familiar enough to be intuitive, unexpected enough to be fun.
Carousel
A larger format designed to sit on a desk. Twist the top and a mint pops out. The kind of object people keep on a desk because it's satisfying to use.
Square Tin
A square tin with graphics derived from the keyline technical drawings of the original Polo pack - a nod to the brand's history that works as decoration without being nostalgic about it.
Reflection
This was my first commercial industrial design project. Polo is well known and well loved across India, so the chance to redesign the packaging was exciting.
While the client loved the designs, they later decided that they weren’t ready to switch their production lines to a new type of packaging.