A Brief Look WITH

We redesigned Psychemedics’ PDT-90 packaging twice, honoring evolving leadership and strategy. The final tri-fold system prioritizes icons, clarity, and at-home confidence, aligning with corporate tastes while preserving accessibility for families and nontechnical users.

Project Year

| 2025

Final packaging photographed in a real living room beside seasonal decor, designed to feel approachable in a family setting, showing how icon-led steps and restrained typography build confidence for at-home users.

Final packaging photographed in a real living room beside seasonal decor, designed to feel approachable in a family setting, showing how icon-led steps and restrained typography build confidence for at-home users.

client

Psychemedics

Psychemedics is a leader in hair drug testing, providing laboratory services for employers, schools, and law enforcement. Their patented technology offers long detection windows, high accuracy, and tamper resistant results.

Project Year

2025

A side-by-side comparison of the original and first redesign illustrates how hierarchy, typography, and spacing improved legibility dramatically while preserving essential content for stakeholders still attached to familiar messaging.
A side-by-side comparison of the original and first redesign illustrates how hierarchy, typography, and spacing improved legibility dramatically while preserving essential content for stakeholders still attached to familiar messaging.
The original packaging opened to reveal its dense content system, an honest starting point that informed our reductions, helping us prioritize must-keep information while planning a cleaner tri-fold instruction experience.
The original packaging opened to reveal its dense content system, an honest starting point that informed our reductions, helping us prioritize must-keep information while planning a cleaner tri-fold instruction experience.

Package

Package

Summary

We completed a two-stage redesign of the Psychemedics PDT-90 at-home hair drug testing kit, adapting to leadership changes while protecting user trust. The first pass modernized a decade-old layout without sacrificing familiar content. The final system embraced a cleaner corporate voice, replacing dense copy with purposeful iconography and softly blurred scientific imagery. We engineered a tri-fold folder with step-by-step instructions and supporting inserts for FAQs and guidelines. Lifestyle photography placed the packaging in real homes to signal accessibility. The result is consistent, confident, and easier to use, with strong adoption across Psychemedics materials.

Project Goals & Purpose

Before beginning, we defined a clear purpose for PDT-90 packaging that met two audiences at once, corporate stakeholders and parents at home. Our mandate was to replace dated visual density with a system that communicates faster, reads cleaner, and scales across inserts, instructions, and future campaigns. As a Subscription-Based Design Agency, our role was to deliver not just a single box, but a living framework that the Psychemedics team could extend confidently. We set goals around iconography, plain-language hierarchy, and reassuring tone, all while respecting regulatory needs and the science behind hair testing. Parents needed an immediate sense of how the kit works and why hair testing helps them make informed decisions. Operations needed packaging that prints efficiently, assembles cleanly, and reduces support calls. Marketing needed assets that align with a more corporate palette and photographic style without feeling cold. To satisfy each priority, we proposed a tri-fold folder that stages the experience in three simple steps, reinforced by a library of icons and concise messaging. Because PDT-90 is often purchased by nontechnical buyers, we planned lifestyle photography in kitchens and living rooms to remove the intimidation of lab environments. That contrast would help the brand meet families where they are, build trust quickly, and position PDT-90 as a practical, affordable choice. If you need this level of strategic packaging and rollout, our Design Retainer Service gives you continuous iteration, fast turnarounds, and high standards without hiring in-house.

  • Clarity at a Glance
    Simplify the buyer journey so a parent can understand what to do in seconds, not minutes, by replacing dense paragraphs with scannable steps, plain language, and consistent typography that reduces hesitation and supports confident at-home decisions.
  • Icon-First System
    Develop a cohesive icon library that replaces repetitive text, anchors every step, and scales across inserts, FAQs, and web content, enabling faster comprehension, lower translation overhead, and durable brand consistency through future updates.
  • Operational Efficiency
    Engineer dielines and content hierarchy for smooth printing, assembly, and kitting, decreasing variability and support calls while preserving regulatory clarity, so operations teams can deliver quality at scale without sacrificing speed or budget.
The first redesign staged in a cozy lounge beside a warm mug emphasizes comfort and clarity, reinforcing our goal to move the message from clinical anxiety to everyday empowerment at home.
The first redesign staged in a cozy lounge beside a warm mug emphasizes comfort and clarity, reinforcing our goal to move the message from clinical anxiety to everyday empowerment at home.

Challenges

Leadership transition reset long-standing brand cues, creating competing expectations between legacy stakeholders and a new, less colorful corporate direction. Content volume on the previous package was high, and much of it had internal champions, so reductions required careful alignment. We also needed to maintain regulatory clarity while reformatting instructions into a tri-fold system that printers and fulfillment could assemble reliably. Lifestyle photography introduced a tone shift from lab to home, which risked feeling off-brand if not handled thoughtfully. Finally, iconography had to be comprehensive enough to replace text without ambiguity, and still feel credible for a science-driven company.

Solutions

We aligned stakeholders through side-by-side prototypes that compared the legacy, the interim refresh, and the final corporate direction, making tradeoffs visible and measurable. A curated icon library replaced repetitive copy while preserving meaning, supported by concise headlines and plain-language microcopy. We engineered a structure with numbered steps, printer-friendly dielines, and a content map that kept regulatory details unmistakable. Lifestyle photography followed brand-safe palettes and composition rules, bridging warmth and clinical credibility. As On-Demand Creative Services, we maintained a reusable system for future inserts and campaigns. If your team needs this rigor and speed, our Design Retainer Service provides it continuously.

Flat artwork for the final design demonstrates the tri-fold layout and integrated pocket, where concise steps, prominent icons, and clear labeling guide users through sampling with less friction and uncertainty.
Flat artwork for the final design demonstrates the tri-fold layout and integrated pocket, where concise steps, prominent icons, and clear labeling guide users through sampling with less friction and uncertainty.

Bring PDT-90 level clarity to your packaging, start your design subscription now!

Bring PDT-90 level clarity to your packaging, start your design subscription now!

... and most importantly

Client Reception

Leadership appreciated the disciplined approach, the clarity of the tri-fold instructions, and the efficiency of the new icon system. They noted fewer support questions and smoother assembly, while marketing praised the corporate alignment without losing warmth. The team adopted the system across collateral, citing faster updates, better consistency, and a stronger fit for at-home audiences, including clearer messaging for parents.

  • With Predi Designs’ guidance and skill, we produced the best content our company has ever had, including print collateral, graphics, digital imagery, and videos.

    Allen Johnson
    VP of Marketing
    Psychemedics Corporation

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