Nutty: Plant-Based Milk Brand System
Designing a brand that helps users make quick, confident choices.
Role: Product Designer
Team: 4 Product Designers (with Jessica, Li-Yen and Sophia)
Timeline: Aug 2024 - Dec 2024
Context
Nutty is a conceptual plant-based milk brand project focused on building a cohesive experience across packaging, website, and social media.
I worked with a team of 4 designers to develop a playful and approachable brand system for Gen Z and Millennials.
The Problem
Choosing plant-based milk is overwhelming.
Too many options across different types and brands
Unclear differences in ingredients and benefits
Difficult to make quick decisions at the point of purchase
Insights
🧃 Lack of clarity in current packaging
Current products either feel too minimal or too playful, lacking both clarity and trust
ℹ️ Prefer simple information
Clear and scannable information is more important than detailed explanations
💨 Users want quick decisions
Gen Z and Millennials value health and sustainability, but don’t want to spend time comparing products
These insights informed how we approached Nutty’s brand strategy and design system.
Brand Strategy: Designing for clarity and approachability
To address the challenges identified in our research, we defined Nutty’s brand around three key principles:
Clarity
Make key information easy
to scan at a glance
Approachability
Use friendly visuals
to reduce intimidation
Consistency
Create a cohesive system across all touchpoints
These principles guided our design decisions across all touchpoints.
Design Decisions: Translating strategy into visual decisions
Each design element was crafted to reflect Nutty’s core principles: clarity, approachability, and consistency.
Mascot / Brand Identity
Making the brand more approachable
We introduced a mascot to create a friendly and memorable identity, helping reduce the intimidation often associated with health-focused products.
The playful character also strengthens emotional connection, especially for younger audiences.
Color System
Using color to simplify decision-making
We designed a color system to differentiate flavors, allowing users to quickly recognize products without reading detailed labels.
Warm tones reinforce the brand’s friendly and energetic personality.
Typography
Balancing personality and readability
We paired a playful display font with a highly readable body font to maintain brand character while ensuring clarity in product information.
Supports quick scanning across packaging and digital touchpoints.
Packaging: Designing for quick decisions at the shelf
We designed Nutty’s packaging to support fast and confident decision-making in real shopping contexts.
At the shelf, users often scan products quickly rather than reading detailed information. Our goal was to reduce cognitive load and make key information immediately visible.
Highlighting key information
Key details such as ingredients and allergens are clearly emphasized, allowing users to understand the product at a glance.
Color-coded product system
Each flavor is assigned a distinct color, enabling quick recognition without the need to read labels.
Playful yet structured layout
The mascot adds personality, while a clear visual hierarchy ensures the information remains easy to navigate.
User perspective
From a user’s perspective, the design allows them to:
Quickly identify the flavor
Understand key benefits within seconds
Make a confident choice without overthinking
Digital Experience: Extending the brand into digital touchpoints
The digital experience extends Nutty’s brand beyond packaging, providing a structured and accessible way for users to explore products and learn more.
While packaging supports quick decisions, digital touchpoints offer deeper information and engagement.
Providing clarity through structure
The website was designed to present information in a clear and scannable way.
Simple navigation across key pages
Clear hierarchy of product information
Emphasis on transparency (e.g. “3 Simple Ingredients”)
Designing for engagement and quick communication
Social media content was designed to capture attention and reinforce brand tone.
Short, attention-grabbing messaging
Playful and conversational visuals
Clear call-to-action to drive interaction
Together, these touchpoints create a cohesive experience that supports both quick decisions and deeper engagement.
Key Takeaways
Designing beyond visuals
This project helped me understand that branding is not just about aesthetics, but about supporting how users process information and make decisions.
Translating strategy into design
I learned how to connect research insights with visual decisions, ensuring that every design choice serves a clear purpose.
Building consistency as a system
Working across packaging, website, and social media strengthened my ability to design scalable and cohesive systems across touchpoints.
If I had more time…
I would further validate how users interpret packaging information in real-world contexts, and refine the hierarchy based on usability testing.
