The Method Home Products strategy is simple. Find a product segment that’s crying for innovation. And, then, create a friendly alternative that offers the right mix of style and substance to meet modern lifestyle trends.

Well known in the home care market, Method decided to give their “advocates” ‒ “the people who love Method, our consumers” ‒ what they’ve been asking for: Method Baby.

The Method Baby line includes four products ‒ hair and body wash; body lotion; bubble bath; and diaper cream. Marketed with the trademark of “squeaky green™”, the natural formulas are hypoallergenic and biodegradable, consisting of an olive oil base with soothing rice milk and mallow in a fresh distinctive scent.

“Method Baby is one of those product areas that we were continually asked to do,” says Josh Handy, creative director for Method. “We felt we could execute it well. And we felt that Method as a brand could do well in the baby care space.”

Designed to be elegantly simple in form, the lotion and hair and body wash containers are made of recyclable plastic that’s covered with shrink film made from Eastman Embrace™ copolyesters.

“Because of the product formulation, we were looking at opaque packaging,” says Handy. “There were limitations in the deco area, and opaque shrink became the obvious way to do it.”

“Shrink got us right where we wanted to be,” says Erik Frey, Method’s packaging development manager.

The egg-shape design of the containers presented challenges.

“It had to do with the rate of shrink we were getting,” Frey explains. “But we didn’t get to the point where we had to change the design for the shrink, so that was a win. Being a PETG (copolyester) film also was very important to us.”

The ability to achieve a soft-touch matte finish with Embrace™ copolyesters was another requirement.

“We wanted a shrink that mimicked the soft feel that we have on some of the plastics that we use,” says Sally Clarke, a graphic designer for Method. “We wanted something soft and gentle.”

Method’s driving principles of style and substance are evident in the packaging designs of its baby care products.

“You see it best in the baby wash with the egg design and the overcap/wash cup,” says Handy. “The style is in the form – it has a lot of personality and we articulate this kind of egg motif throughout the line. Substance is about our natural formula that we refer to as “squeaky green” and the practical wash cup storage system.”

The trend-spotting designers at Method all have individual professional titles such as Squire of Scoop, Disruptor, Plastic Surgeon and Greens Keeper. They are determined in their quest to create what Clarke refers to as “stylish, friendly alternatives to what’s out there in the supermarkets.”

As Josh Handy, also known as The Disruptor, says, “It’s sort of a lifestyle thing.”