Our insights from this year’s Expo West | Sustainable Innovation
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.
Sustainable Innovation
We saw a bunch of neat and innovative sustainable products – both in the products and the materials used. As we learn more and more about how our actions are changing the planet, these products and innovations are going to be more critical and important to work into the packaging we design.
Remember Tofurky? What used to be a bit of a joke (at least for non-vegetarians) has quietly become a leader in plant based protein innovations. Plus they have a great, contemporary take a vintage 60s era design. Plant based protein will become a larger part of our diets as we move away from the non-sustainable practices of mass farming for protein – and Tofurkey makes it look and taste good!
Asarasi blew us away with how good their flavored waters are – and then we heard about how the actual product is harvested. It’s a by product of the maple syrup industry. We thought “tree-filtered” was a gimmick, but no way – the water is literally filtered through the trees created a pure, natural resource. The process doesn’t hurt trees, so it’s a sustainable way to retrieve water. We also really liked their subtle design and color family.
This Bar Saves Lives is an awesome story – combating malnutrition in other countries with each purchase domestically. They recently redesigned and we love the collaged bold use of pattern and color along with flavor cues. These bars have a very serious mission, but on the shelf look like a party and make you smile.
Bee’s Wrap is probably our favorite product overall from Expo West. A reusable replacement for saran wrap or aluminum foil, it sticks to itself or other surfaces to make little snack bags or save leftovers. Think of how much waste can be saved by just cutting those two things out? The design is very on trend with the natural products industry with heavy use of kraft an subtle earthy colors. The actual product has a nice honeycomb pattern randomly placed which gives it a nice natural look and feel.
Enjoy our other stories from 2018 Expo West:
