Urvi — Primer Seltzer

01

The Product & The Problem

Primer Seltzer is a health-conscious seltzer brand entering one of the most visually competitive retail environments in consumer goods, with no shelf equity, no brand recognition, and no design system, going up against established players with years of consumer trust.

The design challenge was multi-layered: build a visual identity from zero, create packaging that communicates health-first positioning in under three seconds on shelf, and do it across 6+ SKUs with enough flexibility for seasonal campaigns, all before launch date.

“In retail, you don’t get a second chance at a first impression. The packaging has to do the selling before anyone reads a word.”

02

My Role & Contribution

Product Designer, owning end-to-end design across pre- and post-launch, from identity through iteration.

Research

Ran a competitive audit across 30+ beverage brands (La Croix, Spindrift, Olipop, Poppi), synthesised findings from 20+ focus groups, and used SQL/Power BI to translate customer segmentation data into design personas.

Visual identity

Built the brand from zero, including wordmark, colour palette, type system, and illustration language, designed to scale across packaging, digital, print, and motion.

Packaging architecture

Designed a modular system across 6+ SKUs, with shared structural elements and flavour-specific colour/illustration, making every SKU instantly recognisable as Primer.

Multi-channel ownership

Extended the system into POS/retail displays, social media templates, motion/animation, and print collateral (brochures, campaign assets) — five channels, one coherent system.

Concept testing

Ran four structured testing rounds (colour system, flavour legibility, cross-SKU consistency, digital adaptation) before any print sign-off.

Post-launch iteration

Used real sell-through data and customer feedback to drive seasonal redesigns, flavour hierarchy adjustments, and campaign A/B testing after launch.

03

Key Design Decisions

(Only the ones that mattered.)

1

Modular design system over bespoke per-SKU design

A component-based Figma system with shared structures and flavour-specific variables made new SKU creation 3× faster while guaranteeing brand consistency.

2

Warm neutrals over clinical minimalism or bold maximalism

Concept testing showed this palette direction communicated “healthy” without feeling sterile, directly informed by research showing consumers make shelf decisions in under 4 seconds based on colour first.

3

Illustration-led flavour cues over text-led ones

Testing simulating 3-foot shelf distance showed illustration-led cues outperformed text-led cues significantly, shifting the design to lead with illustration.

4

Standardised structural grid across all SKUs

Early versions had inconsistent flavour-band placement; presenting all 6+ SKUs together as a family surfaced the issue, and standardising the grid resolved it.

5

Data as a design input, not just a report

Customer segmentation and sell-through data were translated directly into design briefs and personas (mango-flavour summer demand spikes, for instance), rather than analytics living in a separate function from design.

04