Close×

Creating a multi-sensory experience for consumers to engage with a product and its packaging can be the key to delivering a brand story that connects on another level. Harcus Design founder and creative director Annette Harcus discusses how products can be presented to transcend beyond the plasma.

There is a multi-sensory experience for consumers that comes with packaging and its design. Since 1982, Harcus Design founder and creative director Annette Harcus has specialised in packaging design for wines and spirits, body and beauty, and gourmet food products. For Harcus, “packaging needs to be invested with the sensory, as well as the visual”.

Packaging is at the forefront of consumer interaction, Harcus tells PKN, and is an amazing way to speak and connect directly to a market at the touchpoint.

“In today’s retail market, what confronts a consumer is a dizzying array of choice,” she says.

“Packaging, by nature, is actual and dimensional – it’s of the real, tangible world and yet it is often sold on the screen. So, we need to approach consumers with multi-levelled and multi-sensory tactics – in real life, on the web and on their phones – presenting products in ways that transcend beyond the plasma.”

Read the full story >>>

Food & Drink Business

Australian Vintage has secured a $128 million debt refinancing through to March 2028, with an option to extend a further year to 2029, as the McGuigan wines owner reports a significant second-half cash turnaround and upgraded sales momentum heading into FY27.

Endeavour Group has used its first investor day since demerging from Woolworths to lay out a three-year transformation plan targeting $300 million in cost savings, a scaled-back dividend payout, and the exit of most of its winery and vineyard portfolio.

The winners of the 2026 International Wine Challenge (IWC) have been selected, with Australia performing incredibly well. Beresford Estate and Penfolds were singled out, receiving the top International Trophy in the Syrah and Cabernet Sauvignon categories respectively.