The Client

You think you know everything there is to know about them, but until you've had a master class in condoms, their manufacture and differences, you don't realise that there's a lot more to them than meets the eye.

Zemtex Medical is a Dutch company founded by two executives with a long and proven track record in the marketing and sales of condoms. They decided to launch their own venture, using their experience and knowledge of the sector to create and promote their own brand from scratch.

Based in Holland and Belgium, Zemtex Medical began with the idea to create and launch two brands of condoms, an A brand and a B brand.

The Brief

Zemtex Medical approached source23 and asked us to work with them on the brand creation of their first two product lines.

Their plan was to launch two brands and our brief was to be involved right across the board in every step of the process, starting with the product name, then moving on to logo and corporate identity creation and then finally moving on to the packaging design.

The Solution

Zemtex Medical's idea was to launch an A brand and a B brand: the A brand being the company's flagship brand to be available over the counter and at the other regular points of sale (promotional packs of 1 unit, then packs of 3, and 12), and the B brand to be sold in larger quantities (packs of 144 and bags of 500) but only available to the sex industry from wholesale providers.

The first step was to come up with the brand names. After talking to and liasing closely with the client to establish the brand personality and get a solid understanding of the target markets, we drew up a long list, followed by a shortlist of names and then finally settled on DFY (Designed For You) for the A brand, and Vibes for the B brand.

Once the names were in place, we set about creating the logo and global corporate identities for the two brands. With these finalised after the usual creative process and client input, we were able to move on to the packaging layout ideas.

The DFY A brand needed a lot of work to produce packaging for the 3 types of packaging for each DFY model (DFY is available in light, original and strong varieties). In addition to the external packaging, we also needed to produce the accompanying leaflet with instructions and usage guidelines, and also design the actual individual condom covering. The overall design concept, in tandem with the name, was that the condoms are a lifestyle accessory, and as such the packaging for the DFY brand differs significantly from the usual condom packaging in that it has a more stylish opening mechanism, more akin to a gift box than the standard condom box style.

The B brand however used the standard condom box packaging, although the 144 box required some thought as to how to layout the box in the most paper efficient manner possible.

All in all, the project allowed us to work right from the start on a full brand creation project and made use of the knowledge and skills of our whole team, from marketing input to creative direction. The whole process was very satisfying and we're pleased to say that brands are currently available across Europe.