(01/05)Packaging redesign · physical prototype
A cigarette pack with a lung-shaped window: white while it is full, it turns black as the smoker empties it.
- A.Y.
- 2026
- Context
- Project Work (150 hours), Istituto Artigianelli, Trento
- Role
- Design, print files, prototype and production
- Methods
- SWOT, perception-based positioning map, six rules of packaging, storytelling
- Tools
- Adobe Illustrator, Konica digital press, Zünd cutting plotter
- Grade
- 30/30
The slogan on the pack
Every cigarette leaves a mark, now you can see it.
A cigarette pack with a lung-shaped window: white while it is full, it turns black as the smoker empties it.
01 · The problem
Warnings that nobody sees anymore
- 01 / 03
Warnings cover 65% of the front and back of every pack.
Directive 2014/40/EU, art. 10 - 02 / 03
Daily smokers look at the brand, not the warnings.
Maynard et al., 2014, eye-tracking with 30 smokers - 03 / 03
With repetition, the brain’s response fades.
Fridriksson et al., 2018, fMRI with 16 smokers
Cut · Sheet
Wider and thinner
I measured a standard pack and redrew it wider and thinner. On the shelf it breaks the row of identical packs, and it gives the window a larger front.
Visual habituation: the eye stops seeing what it sees every day.
Inside the pack
White means intact. Black means used up.
Each cigarette taken out uncovers the black wall inside. The pack becomes an indicator in real time.
02 · The research
Camel, an icon to redefine
Brand
Camel was founded in 1913 in the United States: a premium brand with a strong identity that has not changed over time. Its historic slogan is “I’d walk a mile for a Camel”. The project does not erase that identity: it puts it in dialogue with new values.
The historic slogan
“I’d walk a mile for a Camel”
SWOT
Camel, SWOT analysis
An iconic brand in a market that wipes out the pack as a place to communicate.
Strengths
- Very high global brand equity
- Iconic visual identity: camel, pyramids, ochre palette
- Strong audience loyalty
Weaknesses
- Tied exclusively to traditional tobacco
- Rigid historic brand codes
- Static pack, bound to standard formats
Opportunities
- Green, recyclable materials
- Structural and functional innovation of the pack
- Limited editions built on storytelling
Threats
- Plain packaging laws
- E-cigarettes and heated tobacco
- Legal restrictions and higher taxes
The project works on one of the opportunities: the structure of the pack itself.
Research
Three possible competitors
- 01The status quo
The standard pack numbs the consumer. It is the real opponent.
- 02Deterrence campaigns
They compete for attention, but are allies on the ethical side. They use fear; the project uses emotional impact.
- 03E-cigarettes and heated tobacco
They compete with clean, technological packaging. The project goes the opposite way: it ennobles paper.
Research
A positioning map rebuilt around perception
Price and quality would have been meaningless for a concept with a social aim. The map uses two other axes, rational to emotional tone and habituation to awareness, and places the concept where neither plain packaging nor shock campaigns sit.
03 · The choices
Three people, three messages
Project scenario 01
The habitual smoker
Sees a mirror instead of a lecture.
Project scenario 02
Someone who wants to quit
Sees their own progress: every cigarette not smoked is a little more white left.
Project scenario 03
Someone close to them
Finds a way to open a conversation without conflict.
Scenarios written for the project, not user research.
Rules
Six packaging rules
- 01Clarity and simplicity
One element on the front: white means intact, black means smoked.
- 02Honesty
The pack does not hide the product: it shows it.
- 03Authenticity
No institutional clichés: a visual story with its own personality.
- 04Shelf impact
A wider, thinner box breaks the row of identical packs.
- 05Extensibility
The same mechanism works for other packs and for loose tobacco.
- 06Practicality
A flat sheet, simple production. Only the window cut is difficult.
- Cut
- Fold
04 · The project
One sheet, one fold at a time
Simple to produce
Everything folds from a single flat sheet, so production stays simple and cheap. Only the lung window needs a more precise cut than usual.
The inner collar
The inner collar is cut from the same sheet and slides into the body.
A lung-shaped window
The only element on the front is a window cut in the shape of lungs, framed by dark concentric lines that give it depth and hide the edge of the cut.
Full pack, white lungs
When the pack is full, the window shows the white paper of the cigarettes lined up inside.
Every cigarette leaves a mark
Each cigarette taken out uncovers the black wall inside. The pack becomes an indicator in real time.
Scroll to fold the sheet
Key moments of the fold, shown as still images.
Simple to produce
Full pack, white lungs
Every cigarette leaves a mark
System
Camel stays recognisable
Built on a real brand to make it concrete: the camel, the desert and the logo stay recognisable, while the warning box now carries the slogan “Every cigarette leaves a mark, now you can see it.”
05 · The outcome
My first physical product
The prototype
From Illustrator to a real prototype
An executive PDF printed front and back on a Konica digital press, then cut and creased by a Zünd plotter: a physical pack you can hold, in a Blue and a Yellow version.
What I learned
Taking an idea from Adobe Illustrator to a printed, cut and creased prototype taught me that the print-ready file is itself a design decision: if a crease or a cut is off by a millimetre, the idea does not survive the plotter. It was my first physical product.
Next step
The concept has not been tested with real smokers: the next step would be a recognition test.
Sources
- Directive 2014/40/EU, art. 10
- Maynard et al., 2014, Drug and Alcohol Dependence: eye-tracking with 30 dependent smokers.
- Fridriksson et al., 2018, Frontiers in Psychiatry 9:319: fMRI with 16 smokers.
Academic concept. Not affiliated with or endorsed by Camel or JT International.
(03) Contact
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