Theory House’s packaging designs for 特力屋 (English phonetic translation: TLW) – the largest home improvement retailer in Taiwan – earned our agency Gold and Bronze Awards from this year’s Vertex Awards International Retail Brand Design Competition.
Theory House was brought on to strategically optimize and consolidate the TLW private brand portfolio to improve their design aesthetic, minimize brand variations and increase shopper retention. Ultimately, two brands were created, covering the store’s mid-tier and value brand offerings, TLW and a “Basic” brand. The TLW brand is dominant throughout the store and spans thousands of SKUs within 12 categories.
Due to their prevalence in the category, the TLW private brand now capitalizes on the retailer’s distinctive square mark and bold orange color. The packaging design reimagined as a simple, modern and consistent brand statement, earned the Bronze award.
By pairing the brand’s vibrant orange with a masculine navy and creating a versatile “frame” shape for holding pack copy (featured in Mandarin and English) and highlighting product photography, the design elevates the product into a confident and recognizable brand, necessary to compete at the shelf.
Strategically, the “Basic” brand is not connected to the TLW banner brand or private brand. It instead serves as the retailer’s value tier. The cheerful yellow and black packaging stands out in the aisle with a friendly, illustrated character literally communicating, via speech bubble, that these are quality, no-frill products that just get the job done. This redesign earned a Gold in the fourth edition of the Vertex Awards competition.
