Incorporating a Popular Meme for a Convenience Store Drink Design

“Guilty” of surprising viewers with a brilliant idea

The industry-university cooperation project between GS Retail and the ERICA Campus was conducted from December 2022 to January 2023. The assignment was to redesign the packaging of an iced drink pouch that caters to the tastes of Generation MZ. Recently, Generation MZ has become the primary focus for some marketing strategies. Thus, the project called for a new interpretation of a package design for three flavors of iced coffee products and three flavors of ade drinks, which are to be launched by Youus, a a personal brand owned by GS25. The project is meaningful because it involved students as both consumers in Generation MZ as well as producers.

The project provided students an opportunity to receive valuable feedback and advice from field experts for their ideas which were then perfected. In the end, four groups were selected for the best ideas and were given the chance to present at the GS Retail Headquarters. Among the four groups was the team GS22.3 who won the Grand Prize. The winners were students A-ra Yoo, Young-sun Lee, and Soo-bin Lee from the Department of Interactive Media Design. It is particularly impressive that Interactive Media majors accomplished such an achievement in a project involving package design project. Commenting on her team’s success, A-ra Yoo said that their idea came from playing with the sounds of words.

“We started by rapidly pronouncing the word, “GS” over and over again, and found that it sounded similar to joe-su, the word for ”prisoner” in Korean. From there, we developed a pun using the phrase ”guilty person” which is one of the popular memes among Generation MZ these days.”

The “guilty person” phrase is used to describe when a celebrity ”steals” their fans' hearts or does things that make fans' hearts flutter. Fans' zeal for their favorite celebrities gave rise to the meme called “guilty person”. The Korean word for prisoner, joe-su, which was coined as a pun for GS, expanded to the GS25 ice pouch in the form of the concept of being found guilty, or being a “guilty person.” The team’s submission involving a “wanted poster” placed in the foreground of the ice pouch package, as if there was a search for a wanted person. Placed at the center was a characterized drink flavor in a prisoner's uniform. Each flavor was labelled with the description of the flavor to appear as their criminal charges in the wanted poster to further complete the concept.

Significance of the project

Several different departments in the Design College participated in the project, providing students with opportunities to explore diverse ideas and areas of improvement. One of the students in the winning team, Soo-bin Lee, commented, “Looking at the other teams’ work that included a standing banner stand and a box package, I learned how narrow my views were, and I only thought inside the box.” She added, “It was fascinating to see how other teams applied the concept in so many different ways.”

A-ra Yoo, the only student in the team who could create characters, recalled that it was not easy to create the package design by connecting flavors. Yoo said that she had to study the concept and basic knowledge of references on her own, and that the process was difficult as she had to come up with intuitive expressions for flavors.

“The part that the manager in charge at the head office focused on was how the taste and ingredients of the drink were expressed on the package. I was advised to consider the use of live action, illustrations, harmony with the characters, etc.”

The advice on how completeness and marketability directly impact consumption led to the team’s consideration of various ideas and perspectives from the marketing and consumer sides. The team said they initially felt at a disadvantage because of their Interactive Media Design major, as they did not have prior knowledge about package design. But on the other hand, they were able to find some advantages. Student Young-sun Lee said she felt she could be free from the structural restrictions she might have been bound by, had she been studying in a major directly related to package design.

“From the start, we just wanted to make it funny. Since we study media design, I think we were a little faster in figuring out the trends and popular elements.”

In other words, the team was able to overcome challenges of being in a new field by using their strengths from their own background. The more they worked, the more ambitious they became, and the more their ideas were perfected. The team members agreed the experience was very enjoyable and valuable learning opportunity. Soo-bin Lee looked back on the project and remarked, “This was a new challenge and was an opportunity for me to change my mindset about my studies and future career.” She added, “I had never really thought about the 2D and 3D fields since I started studying interactive media design. But through this project, I gained an interest in exploring new areas and learned how to approach various fields with an open mind.”

Young-sun Lee also added, “Through this project, I was able to develop a broader perspective and gain interest in something other than design.” She said that the project allowed her to appreciate the fun in another field. The project was more than a field experience, as it also provided a valuable time for growth and self-reflection for all the students who participated, aside from those who won.

Seizing the opportunity

Through this experience, the three students realized the impact and value of the industry-university project. The fact that they were able to experience practical work, even for a short time, and gauge what value their ideas would have in the real world was in itself a meaningful experience. Student Young-sun Lee, who said that it was difficult to actively participate in industry-university projects over the past three years due to COVID-19, expressed the view that as a designer, she was satisfied with being able to change and expand her perspective from being inward to outward.

“If you focus only on learning, you often end up thinking only about your ideas in an ideal situation. In practice, ideas should be realistic rather than ideal, so communicating with the people involved in the field helped me a lot in finding the middle ground between being idealistic and realistic.”

It may not be easy for everyone to participate in such a meaning project due to various reasons including time constraints, personal hesitation, and so on. But for those hoping for similar opportunities in the future, the first step is often having the courage and initiative to seize whatever opportunities are available. Students can definitely grow through engaging in a variety of experiences and proactively exploring new paths on their journey to their future careers. The three students' winning project shows that new possibilities can be discovered when university, industry, and students work together.