Maev's Dog Food Packaging Considers The Humanistic User Experience

Maev is a dog food brand with packaging that looks so chic that you might want to taste a bite before serving it to your dog. The simple white bag and pouch paired with elegant black, oversized typography create an aesthetic far from what's predictably found in the dog food aisle. Maev cleverly designed its packaging for the consumer, considering storage capabilities and compostable packaging for the vitamin bars. While we love our four-legged pals, it's also essential to remember who's buying the food, and Maev hit the nail on the head with its packaging design system.

Maev is the first human-grade raw dog food brand. Within the $100B pet market, the company has served over 4 million meals and has doubled its subscriber base since January 2022. Maev is lowering the barrier to entry for raw dog food — the most nutrient-rich, least-processed diet available for dogs. The brand's dedicated team of veterinary nutritionists have perfected a raw food recipe that meets the nutritional levels established by the AAFCO Dog Food Nutrient Profiles and (*thanks to founder & CEO Katie Spies' ingenious design*) is convenient to store and easy to serve right out of the freezer for less mess and prep. In addition to raw food, Maev offers Bone Broth Topper and Vitamin Bars, which follow the same ethos of convenience with design at the forefront (both aesthetically and functionally). 

Origin story: After her adopted dog George experienced a health scare, Katie (an MIT and Harvard Business School grad who left her Climate Corporation product management job to become a full-time dog walker) turned her focus to nutrition to keep him healthy and happy. She began to learn about the shortcomings of products we’ve been told to trust, and after hundreds of trips down the pet aisle, still couldn’t find a brand she felt confident feeding George — with clean ingredients, targeted nutrition, balanced supplements and ease. So she set out to create Maev. 

A bit more about Maev's innovative design, from bag to bowl: 

• Maev's ingredients are flash-frozen in a high-efficiency nitrogen gas freezer, which locks in moisture level, freshness and the vibrancy of the colors while helping to prevent freezer burn 
• While testing (for 3.5 years), Katie and her team found that most dog owners loved feeding Maev frozen, as pups enjoy the crunch (and vets agree; hard foods are clinically proven to improve dogs' dental health). So, the team designed a frozen dog food, meaning less work for the consumer (no need to thaw, scoop or heat - they can just pour it straight from the bag) 
• The food itself features real ingredients that are easy to identify and trust. Meat is cut into Maev's patent-pending, bite-sized cube shape and mixed alongside other similarly-sized whole ingredients  (like blueberries and veggies). Added natural supplements and minerals are mixed with peanut butter and formed into Maev's signature cube. All of the pieces of food are as consistent as possible, which helps keep the bag of food homogeneously mixed  
• All-natural, human-grade Bone Broth Toppers are frozen into the signature cube as well, providing a 6+ month shelf life. Bone broth is a superfood, but without preservatives (and if not frozen), it has a maximum shelf life of only 3-4 days. The containers stack neatly in the freezer. 
• Maev's Raw Food bag is designed to optimize the customer experience. With its flat, boxy shape, the bag holds its form and can be stood up on its bottom or side in your freezer (even if it's tiny) and stack well.  The material is a high-barrier, partially post-consumer recycled poly that prevents freezer burn, and the zipper seal prevents oxidation and spillage. The food is shipped with compostable materials you can dissolve in water 
• Vitamin Bars are individually wrapped in compostable pouches and sent in an aesthetically pleasing dispenser for your countertop or pantry, so you can easily take one on the go (making it easy to remember daily feeding). The design of a bar itself was chosen because dogs typically don't take well to pills.