Avidity Creative – Cedar Crest
Stone cold renderings to showcase Avidity Creative's brand design for Cedar Crest ice cream
Avidity Creative hired pkgd.design to replace flat Photoshop mockups with high-quality, photorealistic 3D visualization of Cedar Crest’s refreshed packaging.
The brief: build custom-textured “frosted” renders that look cold, craveable, and consistent across seven flavor SKUs—then compose attention-grabbing environmental scenes for web and social. All assets needed to be award-submission-ready and versatile for both Avidity’s portfolio and Cedar Crest’s marketing.
Problem
2D mockups couldn’t convincingly sell cold surface realism or scale cleanly across multiple SKUs and aspect ratios. Avidity needed a cohesive, photo-realistic image library that captured the tactile character of paperboard ice-cream tubs under studio lighting and could anchor portfolio pages, awards entries, and brand channels without re-shoots.
Outcome
Using SolidWorks for geometry fidelity and KeyShot for rendering, pkgd.design delivered a unified asset set: individual SKU renders with a believable frost treatment, plus environmental scene compositions in HD wide (desktop) and vertical (social) formats. The images replaced legacy mockups on Avidity’s site, supplied Cedar Crest with ready-to-publish visuals, and served as the image backbone for design-award submissions.
Ibrance – Pfizer Rx
Calendarized holistic packaging that guides breast-cancer patients through a complex dosing cycle
Ibrance® (palbociclib) is a potent CDK 4/6 inhibitor for HR-positive, HER2-negative metastatic breast cancer. To work safely, patients must follow a strict 21-days-on / 7-days-off schedule at one of three strengths (75 mg, 100 mg, 125 mg). Early in-market bottles left many women second-guessing whether today was an on day—or if they’d already taken a tablet. Workshop interviews in Manhattan confirmed the core pain: “I dump the bottle and count backwards to be sure.”
Pfizer charged Sam with leading the structural redesign from bottle to a holistic, wallet-card-plus-carton system that makes dosing intuitive—even for patients fatigued by chemo.
Problem
Patients lacked confidence. A bottle offered no visual cue for where they were in the cycle, leading to mis-dosing risks. Any new pack also had to:
- meet F=1 child-resistance (FDA) without frustrating older or neuropathic users;
- keep all three strengths visually distinct;
- integrate clear graphics from Pfizer’s partner agency without altering structural integrity.
Outcome
Within 24 months we moved from workshop sketch to market launch (2020):
- Three wallet cards per carton, each holding seven tablets.
- A circular, start-any-day blister pattern—patients align Monday-Sunday clockwise, eliminating calendar math.
- Design-patented blister geometry (US Dxxxx, 2021).
- Passed F=1 on the first test submission for 100 mg & 125 mg; 75 mg required one tweak due to round-tablet shape.
- Pfizer’s HCP materials now highlight the pack as a built-in “dose-tracking” aid.
ZYNcoin Comfy Can
Turning a throw‑away plastic canister into a pocket‑proud premium accessory
When Web3 venture ZYNcoin wanted to move from digitalhype to tangible value, it asked its in‑house brand Get Comfy to deliver somethingholders could actually carry. The brief: create a premium aluminium snus canthat mirrors the familiar plastic ZYN container in size and capacity, feelsgood enough to show off, and slips discreetly into any pocket. Oh—and hide afunctional bottle opener in the base.
Get Comfyturned to pkgd.design, a packaging design agency known for rapidindustrial design turnaround and flat‑rate scalability. Our mission wasclear: transform a sketch into supplier‑ready CAD in under a week, proving thata fractional industrial‑design partner can outpace traditional studios withoutcutting corners on craftsmanship.
Problem
ZYN’s stock tin is injection‑moulded plastic: cheap, light,and designed to be discarded after a single use. Replacing it with CNC‑machined aluminum packaging introduced three intertwined hurdles:
- Geometry paradox – The client wanted the bottle opener dead‑centre on the can’s underside. Standard pry‑bar profiles need an exposed edge; a sealed disc offers none.
- Capacity constraint – The new can had to hold exactly 15 nicotine pouches—no user should sacrifice convenience for style.
- Weight & cost balance – Aluminium brings premium tactility but threatens pocket weight and machining minutes, which can balloon unit costs.
Failing on any front would reduce the product to a novelty gimmick rather than a flagship merchandise piece for a crypto‑savvy audience.
Outcome
In five business days pkgd.design delivered two fully manufacturable versions:
- Debossed lid – streamlined feel, lower tool wear, and projected unit cost of $X.
- Embossed lid – mirrors the client’s original concept, adds X g mass and ~X % extra machining time.
Both variants matched the original plastic tin’s outer dimensions within ±0.05 mm, retained full 15‑pouch capacity, and arrived with STEP files, cutter‑pathn otes, and ISO‑dimensioned drawings any CNC shop could run immediately.
Challenges
Photo-realistic “frost”
The brand wanted a convincing cold-surface look—tight micro-condensation, subtle edge melt, and depth variation—without the plastic sheen or stamped-on speckle you get from generic overlays. The treatment had to hold up in macro close-ups and wide hero frames alike.
Paperboard realism at the micro level
Ice-cream tubs have tricky material cues: hard-angled seams, rolled circular lips, tiny wrinkles on the lid’s inner roll, and crinkles along the outer top edge where dual die-cuts meet. The shader and bump/normal work needed to communicate real paperboard—not plastic.
Composition ideation before heavy lift
Before committing hours to modeling and renders, we ran quick thumbnail sketching sprints to explore composition ideas—stacks, arcs, and radial spreads—then shared annotated selects with Avidity to align on brand vibe and storytelling. This cut iterations later when the 3D work ramps up.
Color fidelity under studio lighting
Each flavor owns a distinct colorway. We needed a light rig that kept whites clean, blacks rich, and flavor hues consistent across every angle, so a seven-SKU grid reads as one family—without hue drift or clipped highlights.
Solution
Custom frost material
We built a dedicated cold-surface material tuned for packaging: fine-scale roughness for micro-condensation, localized breakup at edges, and depth cues that read as surface chill rather than painted noise. The shader resolves cleanly from macro crops to large banners.
Calibrated studio lighting
A neutral, controllable studio rig preserved brand colors while sculpting appetizing speculars. With exposure and white balance locked, flavor-to-flavor consistency stayed tight across the entire set.
Cohesive camera & composition system
A fixed camera “recipe” (focal length, height, tilt) created uniformity for single-SKU renders. For environmental scenes, we built two families—gravity-grounded stacks and floating arrays—so the brand can pivot between premium restraint and scroll-stopping energy.
Delivery for web, social, and awards
Beyond standard PNG/TIFF stills, we delivered layered PSD files with individual render passes (key/fill/rim lights, shadows, backgrounds, reflections). Avidity’s team can fine-tune composites in Photoshop, keeping the investment a living asset—a key advantage of 3D over one-and-done photo shoots.
Result
The image system replaced legacy mockups across Avidity Creative’s portfolio and equipped Cedar Crest with award-submission-ready visuals that translate cleanly from desktop hero banners to vertical social posts. With consistent lighting, paperboard realism, and compositions built for multiple aspect ratios, the renders elevate the brand story and give both teams a reusable, editable library for future campaigns and flavors.
Impact
7 flavor SKUs rendered as a cohesive family
Custom frost treatment for believable cold-surface realism
Layered PSD handoff with render passes for award, web, and print workflows
Looking to elevate your brand's presentation with photorealistic textures in stunning environmental scene renderings? Schedule a call with us to showcase your brand with portfolio-worthy visuals fit for awards submissions.
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