Our insights from this year’s Expo West | Color Stories
About a month ago we attended Expo West in Anaheim to walk the many aisles and see innovative & inspiring products. The following posts run through our insights and finds we’re excited to share.
Expo West is one of the largest, if not the largest, trade show for the natural products industry. With over 3000 exhibitors and estimates of 80,000 – 100,000 attendees it can be an overwhelming and claustrophobic experience – but it can also be very helpful and inspiring.
We went this year and spent 3 days soaking up all the emerging trends, innovative brands, and inspiring entrepreneurs who move the needle for the industry. We’re excited to share our insights and discoveries with you below.
Color Stories
Color plays a huge role in the decision to buy a product, so it’s no surprise we’re seeing bold, bright colors on a lot of the products featured at Expo West. Here’s some of our favorites:
UnReal makes yummy, guilt free riffs on traditional snacks like M&M’s. The candy space is very colorful, and UnReal does an amazing job creating a billboard of bold bright colors with striking design to complement. In a world of bubbly letters and swooshy effects, UnReal takes a different design stance, just like their products.
Sun & Swell Foods is on the other end of the spectrum. Soft, warm subtle colors that evoke their name and origin in Southern California. These colors feel very natural and let your eyes rest when you see them on a shelf of loud, bold snack & energy products.
Serenity Kids Baby Food takes the high road with their design and color choices instead of falling into the usual traps of baby food design – cartoony, bubbly silly design with bright, garish colors. We love the sophisticated and understated color choices and these will absolutely standout amongst other baby food brands.
Thunderbird Bars was by far our favorite color story. They do a great job of picking up queues from the natural energy bar space utilising warm earthy textures and then take a complete 180 and throw in a bold neon green. Or they embrace their origins and throw a bold bright Texas flag across the packaging. Each bar has a different vibe and feel, but the thunderbird shape is always consistent.
Enjoy our other stories from 2018 Expo West:
