The food shelf has become a high-stakes arena, where packaging design determines visibility, credibility, and consumer pull within seconds. Aesthetics alone no longer suffice; brands must understand behaviour, colour codes, and category psychology to break through. Dhun Patel, Chief Executive Officer, Therefore Design, has built her practice around this reality. In this feature, Dhun explores the themes that inform purposeful and performance-driven food packaging.
The Agency’s Core Design Philosophy: Strategy Before Aesthetics
At the heart of the agency’s approach lies a simple, uncompromising belief: design is a business tool, not decoration. Every brief begins with understanding the category, the consumer, and the commercial ambition, long before colour palettes or typography enter the conversation. The team interrogates the context ruthlessly: where the product sits, how it will be seen, what it competes with, and what behaviour it aims to trigger. Aesthetics follow strategy, never the other way around.
Dhun Patel reinforces this clarity through the way she has structured her agency. She has built it on specialised verticals, such as research, strategy, visual design, and brand communication, ensuring that no creative decision is made in isolation. Each discipline challenges the other, producing work that is not only visually sharp but commercially grounded. Dhun often emphasises that a design agency must behave like a thinking partner, not a decoration studio, and the organisation’s structure reflects that intent.
Context Dictates Design: Why Mass-Market Visibility Outranks Minimalist Trends
Retail is a battlefield, and the shopper’s eye is the only currency that counts. Minimalism may win awards, but it rarely wins shelf space in high-velocity categories. Mass-market design operates under different physics, harsh lighting, cluttered racks, and a three-second decision window. Minimalism may appeal in controlled brand worlds, but on a bustling retail shelf it often loses the battle for attention. Here, context shapes every design move, and visibility becomes the foundation of commercial success.
Minimalism vs Market Reality: Appeal, Limitations, and Commercial Impact
While minimalism dominates global design conversations, Patel insists it serves only a narrow, elite audience. The mass market operates differently. Minimalist packs may appear premium, but they underperform when competing against louder, more expressive formats in busy retail spaces. The agency avoids chasing design trends that do not align with the product’s reality. The market decides what works, not the aesthetic preference of the designer or client.
Ethical Responsibilities in Packaging: Claims, Communication, and Consumer Awareness
Ethics in packaging is not a creative philosophy; it is a commercial obligation. The modern consumer is alert, informed, and quick to disengage when communication feels inflated or ambiguous. As Dhun notes, “A pack carries a promise, and the moment that promise is stretched, credibility breaks.” Responsible design demands clarity—clean claims, accurate information, and messaging that respects intelligence rather than exploiting impulse.
Patel points out that while most urban consumers make informed choices, the rural market presents a starkly different challenge. She recalls an incident from a social-impact project where a mother gave her feverish child packaged snacks because, as the woman explained, “It’s packed — how can anything be safer than that?” For Dhun, this is where irresponsible claims and exaggerated projections become dangerous, because packaging directly shapes perception in places where education and access are limited.
She stresses the need for honesty in communication, especially around words like “healthy,” “organic,” or “better for you.” In another instance, her team questioned a client extensively on their ability to substantiate an “organic” claim, insisting on proof because, as Dhun puts it, “If the claim cannot withstand scrutiny, it shouldn’t be on the pack.” Conversely, she cites products marketed as improved alternatives but still containing sugar, noting that responsible design means choosing precise language — not overstating benefits. As she says, “It’s about choosing the right language and not misleading the consumer.”
Colour Codes and Mental Associations: Working With, Not Against, Category Psychology
Colour is the category’s unspoken language. Consumers interpret it instinctively; recognition happens long before reading anything on pack. This is why fighting category codes often slows down comprehension. Patel explains, “When colour aligns with consumer expectation, the product becomes legible in an instant.” Effective design leverages this psychology intentionally—reinforcing cues of freshness, flavour, indulgence, or value—so the product communicates its purpose at a glance. Working with these associations strengthens recall and accelerates choice.
Founder Clarity as a Creative Catalyst: How Vision Shapes Stronger Design
Clear, articulated intent from the founder is one of the strongest accelerators of good design. When leadership knows exactly what the brand stands for, who it serves, and what problem it solves, the creative process gains direction instead of drifting through endless iterations.
For Dhun’s agency, founder clarity is not a “nice-to-have”; it is the baseline requirement for impactful packaging. When the core idea is fragmented or overly fluid, the design team is forced to compensate for strategic gaps, often diluting the final output. But when the founder brings conviction and coherence, the work becomes faster, sharper, and more honest. In Dhun’s experience, the strongest projects emerge when founders articulate their truth without trying to mimic competitors or chase trends. A focused vision empowers the agency to build a visual system that is not only memorable but also rooted in what the brand genuinely wants to own in the market.
The Designer’s Dilemma: Standing Out vs Fitting In and Lessons From the Market
The ongoing tension between distinction and recognisability sharpens as brands confront real-world performance. As Dhun puts it, “Design must be memorable, but it must also be understood without effort.” That line captures the central truth of packaging today: creativity has value only when it works within the consumer’s intuitive frame of reference.
Push too far beyond category norms and the product risks becoming unrecognisable; lean too closely into them and it blends into the shelf. The market rewards calibrated originality — work that signals clearly, cues the right expectations, and still manages to carve out its own visual territory. This balance requires discipline, not theatrics, and a willingness to prioritise clarity over cleverness.
Ultimately, packaging that performs is purposeful, honest, and confident in what it wants the consumer to see and feel. As the conversation often circles back to, “A pack earns its place not by shouting, but by saying the right thing with precision.” In a landscape defined by clutter and shrinking attention spans, that equilibrium becomes a genuine competitive edge.
