Packaging design is now a battle for attention and distinction — here’s how brands can stand out

Packaging is no longer competing solely for shelf presence— but also for clarity, recall and instant emotional recognition. For Katrina Crescenzo, Associate Creative Director at Lonsdale Design Singapore, the strongest packaging work goes far beyond aesthetics.

With more than 15 years of experience spanning advertising, branding, and visual merchandising for global brands including Unilever, Heineken Group, Pernod Ricard, and Bayer, and as one of the judges for the D&AD Awards 2026, Katrina believes the most compelling packaging ideas are the ones that disrupt expectations, communicate a clear “big idea” within seconds, and create an immediate emotional response.

In an exclusive interview with adobo Magazine Founder, President, and Editor-in-Chief Angel Guerrero during the judging sessions in London, she reflected on why the future of packaging depends on creating new visual languages rather than repeating the same shelf cues and design trends.

_{adobo Magazine’s Angel Guerrero with MOSComm’s Maeve O’Suillivan and Lonsdale Design Singapore’s Katrina Crescenzo at D&AD Awards 2026}

adobo Magazine: Packaging exists at the intersection of branding, design, functionality, and consumer behavior. When judging at D&AD, what qualities made certain pieces of packaging feel truly distinctive and worthy of deeper attention?

Katrina: I was thinking a lot about this when looking at the packaging, and I think one of the criteria that I did set is: is it pushing forward what packaging can be? Because there is kind of a trend right now — we’re all looking at the same thing, like the same Pinterest boards, the same things on the shelf. The question is, what’s new? What can be the new language, and how can this packaging inspire the future? So those were the criteria, and of course, there should be a really good big idea behind it. So it’s not just aesthetic — it should be doing its function.

adobo: You’ve talked about the power of a “good big idea.” In advertising, there’s a huge emphasis on this — but how does it translate to packaging?

Katrina: It plays a big role because you still have the brief, what the product should do, who your target market is. So it’s kind of like the same brief from advertising, and you need to bring this to life in one still composition. Unlike, for example, in TVCs or print ads where there’s a lot more storytelling, you need to be able to tell that big idea, that big story, in that one precise moment. So it needs to be single-minded, it needs to be clear in three seconds, because nobody would spend time like, “Oh, what does this tell me?”

adobo: Could you tell us from your point of view, and from the works you have seen and evaluated, how would you sum up the entries and what you see as a body of work?

Katrina: If I am being honest, there wasn’t a lot of wow, so I guess that’s why we are the judges, because we can tell that. But yeah, there were some standouts, but a lot of them felt like they could have been pushed further.

adobo: In today’s market, packaging has to function across shelves, e-commerce, thumbnails, media, and increasingly, sustainability expectations. How are these pressures, you think, changing the way designers like yourself approach practicing craft and innovation?

Katrina: I think those are just different permutations, like the examples that you’ve given. Apart from sustainability, those are different touchpoints of the pack, and it can be translated. However, it still boils down to: you need to crack the big idea, you need to have that strong base first, and then you move about what it can look like on ecommerce. So for ecommerce, we do simplify because it’s a small thumbnail, and then your logo needs to be bigger. So I think those are the minor tweaks, but essentially it’s still the same process of going through that big idea.

adobo: You came from advertising, and now you’re in a branding agency. What’s the difference between advertising and packaging or branding? How different is the discipline in a marketing agency?

Katrina: I must say, though, I did learn a lot from advertising and how to think. I think the connecting storytelling part, I did learn that from advertising. The difference between here and advertising versus branding is the details are very, very important, and there are way more restrictions and restraints that need to happen on a pack. And again, you need to deliver that and grab the attention of your consumer, like, “Hello, look at me, I’m here,” and create that moment of identification. So when I design, I make sure there’s something that you remember on my pack. Whether it’s, “Oh, it’s the pack with that butterfly,” or “It’s the pack with this huge letter V.” I feel in principle that needs to be there because a consumer — for example, you’re going to the grocery, there’s like 10 million things on the shelf — and there needs to be one distinct thing for you to find to easily make your life easier. “Oh, I’m looking for that butter I love.” Then I just look for that yellow. So it’s those kinds of thinking — human thinking, human shopping — that need to be considered.

adobo: You were also part of the multi-awarded Vaseline Transition Lotion campaign, which gained recognition for both its creative impact and design execution.

Katrina: We were briefed that the Vaseline Transition Lotion is for the transgender community in Thailand, so we had to internalize what that means. As with all our projects, we begin with strategy, so we did our research. We collaborated with a prominent illustrator from Thailand and got their point of view because it’s important to have a clear perspective from them on what is correct and what is not, because we need that guidance for speaking to them. So we started with strategy and did a lot of insights work as well to further understand what it means to be transgender.

We created different insights, for example: is it coming out of your shell? Is it being reborn? Is it about revealing? So those types of insights, and we’ve asked through interviews to validate whether these perceptions from us were correct or not.

So when we finally came up with some symbols for the specific variant for the Transition Lotion, we got validation that the most symbolic icon would be the butterfly. But because the butterfly is a symbol for the entire transgender community, we wanted to create one that’s specifically for Vaseline because this is still a Vaseline product, and it has to cue efficacy, it has to cue science, but at the same time, it needed to tell that story of transition.

So the butterfly we created was purposely done where it echoes a cell structure because it tells efficacy, but also that I am already coming out of my shell and revealing my true self. And the finish that we selected for the butterfly, which is a holographic design, is our ode to the community. Instead of flag-washing it with rainbows, it’s more like a subtle detail that shows you that transition.

adobo: Without revealing winners, what kind of packaging work stood out that we can say is Pencil-worthy? Were there entries that challenged traditional ideas of what packaging can be or do? And what were the discussions like in the room?

Katrina: The ones that stood out were the disruptive ones. We’ve been working in the industry for quite a while, so the ones where you go, “Oh, I’ve never seen that before. That’s an interesting take in this category, in this format.” So those are the ones that stood out because it gives you a vision that this can set the standard moving forward.

The jury was actually quite aligned in that way. There were debates on some specific projects, but overall, we were quite aligned. It had to be fresh. You can feel it when it gives you some emotion. There were also some designs that just gave you a dopamine hit. It still needs to be desirable. There were a few that literally made me smile or made me think, “I wish I thought of that. That’s so clever.”

The other thing is being single-minded. I’m not confused when I look at this one. I immediately get your point. So those are the things.

There was one that’s super beautiful. It’s called Nazionale. It’s for an alcohol combination — limoncello and another drink that I forgot — but they come together and it played around Italian bar culture, and how they’ve incorporated those realities and insights and turned them into a design. I wish I had thought of that.

The other one is for a sunblock project called Evil Ray. I have done multiple sunblock projects, and usually when you do sunblock, it’s all about SPF 50 and functionality. But this one personified the sun as a villain, and its take was more humorous rather than so serious, so that really stood out.

adobo Magazine is an official media partner of D&AD Awards 2026.

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