COMMUNICATION SYSTEM DESIGN | PACKAGING DESIGN | INFORMATION DESIGN | VISUAL DESIGN
The project was driven to build a systematic, sustainable & scalable framework for variation—so that design could be meaningfully executed across offerings and address requirements of different user types, product brands and formats.
The design project addressed innovation along 3 tracks for holistic impact: Information Design, Visual Design and Workflow Design for Deployment.
Client : Dr. Reddy’s
Team: Pragun Agarwal, Mohor Ray Dahiya, Rajesh Dahiya, Siddharth Nair, Nia Thandapani
Role: Visual Design and Development
Tools: Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Indesign, Adobe Photoshop
Duration: 1 year | Done as a part of the design team at Codesign, Gurgaon, India
Content Credit: Codesign LLP
Project Objective:
Following a brand rejuvenation exercise, Indian multinational pharmaceutical brand Dr Reddy’s identified communication design for packaging as a key touchpoint to reflect their new patient-first philosophy. As a part of the Codesign team, we were commissioned to create a communication design system for Schedule-H drug packaging, across all 300 brands and 550+ SKUs in India.
Design Challenges:
Creating differentiated brand recognition & recall.
Identifying opportunities for enhancing experience through design of communication.
Achieving consistency across a vast product portfolio, including an ever-growing range of product brands and SKU-s.
Adherence to stringent regulations in Schedule-H drugs sector in India.
Enabling deployment at a systematic and rapid pace with existing internal resources.
Packaging before redesign
Defining stakeholder groups:
With deeper inquiry into the usage of packaging, we created a fine-grained distinction of the primary user into categories of (I) Patients (II) Stockists & Pharmacists and (III) Medical Practitioners. This new typology of users, each with their own distinct requirements, was used to create a first level of classification for communication design, leading to relevant customization of information and visual design. For example, for secondary packaging with stockists as primary user, product identification was given high priority on all surfaces given the cluttered storage conditions seen at warehouses.
Information grouping and structure:
A new all-encompassing structure was created to organize information and to consolidate and systemize content collection for packaging communication. This enabled logical and usage-based clustering of a large volume of information that established according to pack format and user typology.
10 product brands and over 60 SKUs were studied to create a grouping system that could accommodate variables, and ease locating and understanding key information for users. For internal brand teams, it provided a consistent structure to collect and create content for design teams. For the internal design teams, it provided a steady reference to apply and adapt designs, without compromising on intended user experience.
For quick and correct identification of products, in commonly disorganized warehouse and retail storage, product identification information was made visible on all faces of secondary packaging.
From the field: A common reality of stocking and retail storage in India
Whereas for patients and medical practitioners where reading dosage information was more critical, all faces barring the front were dedicated to medicine information, building them for legibility and convenience of reading.
Visual Design:
The design system strategically deploys visual elements to support functionality, bring clarity and enhance user experience. Here are a few examples:
Workflow Design for Deployment:
A critical delivery for the project was designing a workflow that enabled the team to work rapidly, but without losing consistency and design impact across 300+ brands and 550+ SKUs for India market.
The step-by-step guidelines are designed to enable designers to select a specific task and navigate the detailed guidelines accordingly—optimising time and retaining relevant design detailing.
Impact:
The communication system design project for Dr Reddy’s Schedule-H packaging is the only large-scale effort of its kind in the pharmaceutical sector in India. It is being successfully and rapidly rolled out for the ever-growing portfolio of product brands and SKUs in India. It has established distinct presence in a market that is cluttered with inconsistent and formulaic packaging which is brand-centric and not user-centric. Recognising the value of the project created for India market, the same system is now being adapted to Dr Reddy’s 40+ international markets.