Case study

FreePaani.io Packaging

Carton packaging for FreePaani.io, an ad-supported free drinking water concept, in clean white with sky-blue type and line icons.

Graphic Design
Illustration
Advertising

Overview

I designed carton packaging for FreePaani.io, which presents itself on the pack as Pakistan's first free beverage company. The idea is ad-supported drinking water: brands pay for space on the carton so the water can be sold cheaply or given away. I worked in Illustrator and Photoshop on a 500 ml gable-top carton with four printed faces.

Challenge

The pack had two audiences at once. It needed to look like a clean, trustworthy water product to the person drinking it, and it also had to pitch the business model to advertisers, with a large open panel that says clearly that the space is for sale.

Approach

I kept the carton almost entirely white and used one sky blue plus a dark gray for type, so it reads as water first. Each face does one job. The front says "get free paani in paper, plastic, aluminum" with simple line drawings of a carton, can and bottle. The ad face says "your ad here" in oversized blue and gray letters, with a water drop and curved "premium drinking water" text. A side panel carries the advertiser pitch and a QR code, and the back uses a blue line drawing of a well with the line "1 rps per beverage builds water well in thar desert."

Outcome

The result is a full four-sided carton design, shown in product mockups as a single isometric pack, a three-carton lineup and a scattered overhead layout. The system is simple enough to adapt to the paper, plastic and aluminum formats named on the front.

Published January 25, 2024Tools Illustrator, PhotoshopView on Behance ↗