Establishing a cohesive identity for Trimaco packaging to drive brand recognition.

Fall 2024

Overview

Trimaco is dedicated to Total Jobsite Protection, offering a broad range of high-quality products for surface protection, dust containment, and more—serving everyone from professionals to DIYers. However, a key challenge emerged: while customers recognized the products, they often didn’t associate them with the Trimaco brand. As major retailers increasingly pushed for private label packaging, our brand visibility declined, putting us at risk of fading into obscurity.

Brand Attributes

Fresh and Modern

Visually stimulating

Upbeat, energetic and friendly

Knowledgeable

Dependable and durable

Target Audience

Every Man

Young to Seasoned Professionals

DIYers

Contractors

Craftsmen

Where we were

Trimaco’s branding lacked consistency, with numerous product families operating under completely different brand systems. On top of that, the packaging was cluttered and difficult for consumers to navigate—there was simply too much information, making it hard to identify what truly mattered. The need for trilingual compliance to sell in Canada only added to the confusion, as the required translations further crowded the design.

Research & Strategy

Through extensive research such as store visits, packaging analysis, font and color studies, mood boards, and design concepts, we aim to create a strong brand presence and enhance the consumer shopping experience. By utilizing a consistent color scheme across all artwork and incorporating secondary colors to indicate quality tiers, we plan to provide customers with clear product differentiation. The Trimaco logo will be prominently featured to reinforce brand recognition. Specialized logos for each sub-brand will complement the overall design while maintaining brand presence. Minimizing copy, incorporating icons, and removing unnecessary illustrations will result in a more streamlined and cohesive packaging design.

Store visits to see competitor displays

Packaging inspiration

Mood board

Sketches and Early Stages

I experimented with keeping the angles, as they’re a key part of our brand identity. I drew strong inspiration from the splatter elements used in the XFamily product line, which added a bold, energetic touch. While I explored alternative color schemes, I ultimately chose to refine our existing system to maintain brand consistency and avoid confusing our customers.

Trimaco canvas packaging exploration

XLogo early sketches

Where I Ended Up

Packaging system demonstrated on the top selling products.

Final results

As things turned out, we ended up taking a different direction than I had initially envisioned. We wanted the brand perception to be friendlier and every man rather than bold and grunge. Fortunately, many of my ideas and logo concepts were repurposed and found new life in other forms.

We did stick with the original color system I had developed, and the XFamily logo system was also carried over.

While Trimaco chose not to move forward with the grunge-style paint splatter color blocks, we were able to successfully apply that concept to our other sub-brand, Ram Board.