During my time at Joe Doucet x Partners, we took on the unique and formidable task of elevating the brand and product portfolio of one of the largest vaporizer companies on the market. Competitively jockeying for market share in a space ruled by giants like JUUL, within a landscape quickly becoming saturated with rinse and repeat disposable competitors, NJOY needed to fight hard to set itself apart. Under the leadership of Doug Teitelbaum, NJOY was able to strategically adjust course in the wake of Juul’s controversy to ensure that the products and brand we created were of a premium quality and aesthetic, appealed to an exclusively adult customer base, and were (above all else) the safest option to help smokers make the switch. The work we did at JDXP served as the basis to reintroduce NJOY to the world, unseating JUUL as the market leader, and has since been acquired by Altria Group.
The project above does not reflect the work executed at Joe Doucet X Partners, nor the attitude of NJOY as a company. The case study is purely an exploratory variation completed on my own, with the goal of targeting the market of young adult customers left in the wake of the reckless product development in years past. The reactionary response of many to the uncertain landscape of product safety turned many young adult customers BACK to smoking real cigarettes. This explore, albeit quite edgy and sarcastic at times, is my own answer to that and offers something imbued with a posture and energy that thumbs its nose. Something that seems like it would draw defiant mustaches in permanent marker on the faces of models in those square plexiglass ads on the subway, but still responsibly pays its taxes on time and remembers its mom’s birthday. Something that aesthetically stands proudly outside of the rather commonplace “Muji minimalism” that plagues everything that seems to go to market now. In the shifting environment of “sin,” and the paradox of choice, I wanted to make NJOY the easy decision and create an identity that shouts (both metaphorically and literally) that there are those who are just happy to be alive.
: IDENTITY + PACKAGING
[ 2024 ]