The full story of
SHELF LIFE
Shelf Life is a satirical packaging project that mimics real consumer products to question how brands sell identity, emotions, and aspirations. I designed a range of fictional products, complete with packaging systems, ironic copywriting, and retail-style displays. Each item looks believable on a store shelf while exposing how easily design can manufacture desire.
Scope
Packaging
Academic Project
Critique
Timeline
5 Weeks
Anxiety
A packaged tea that critiques the booming wellness beverage market. Anxitea mimics herbal calming teas but pushes the ingredient language to an unsettling extreme, reflecting how “wellness” products often market anxiety itself while claiming to soothe it.
Minglo
A personality chewing gum that promises to give the user instant charisma. Minglo plays on the idea that identity and confidence can be consumed like a product, packaging personality as a quick, chewable solution for fitting in.
Tweak
A cosmetic-style serum that satirizes the promise of self-improvement through beauty products. Tweak Serum exaggerates the language of skincare marketing, where minor “enhancements” are packaged as life-changing transformations, turning the idea of personal improvement into something bottled, branded, and endlessly purchasable.
Urgeo
A canned drink designed around the culture of instant gratification. Urgeo sells the idea that urgency and motivation can be consumed on demand, parodying energy drinks and productivity culture where every urge, impulse, or ambition needs to be satisfied immediately.
Dive Deeper
The Shelf Life™ catalogue is designed as a product lookbook that stages the collection as if it belongs in a real retail environment. Using stylized product photography, bold layouts, and exaggerated marketing copy, the book presents each item as a desirable consumer object while quietly revealing the absurdity of packaging emotions, urges, and identity as purchasable goods.
