Lakewood, NJ – Orthodox Mother Turns Barcodes Into Art

Lakewood, NJ – Look at a package of Elyon Marshmallows and you may notice something unusual. Instead of the typical rectangular barcode on the back of the package, depending on the variety of marshmallow, you will see a signature Elyon Marshmallow either sleeping on a bed shaped barcode, jumping off the barcode, or peeking out from behind the barcode.

Yael Miller, a Lakewood mother of three, who together with her husband Reuven owns Miller Creative, a firm specializing in branding and package design for numerous companies, decided to create Vanity Barcodes, a subsidiary devoted exclusively to barcode design, in January 2009.

“We had seen custom barcodes before created by a company in Japan,” said Mrs. Miller in an interview with VIN News. “But we thought we could use our design expertise to do the same thing, only better.”

According to the Wall Street Journal, barcode design is a new trend with small companies, bigger names like Duane Reade and even giants such as Nestle incorporating vanity barcodes into their package design in an effort to better connect with consumers.

“The concept is similar to vanity license plates,” explained Mrs. Miller. “A barcode is something that has to be included on every item but can be an eyesore. With a little creativity, a custom designed barcode can engage the consumer and really make people smile.”

There are certain ground rules to bar code design. A barcode needs to be approximately half an inch high, with blank space both to the left and right of the barcode and not all colors can be read by the scanner.

Mrs. Miller found her clients to be very receptive to the idea of incorporating the custom designs into their packaging and Vanity Barcodes offers both stock barcodes to be customized with the client’s barcode number or complete custom designs. Some of the barcodes Mrs. Miller has designed include a hand mixer which appears to be mixing the barcode numbers, a field of pink flowers growing out of the barcode, a paintbrush dripping paint, a steaming cup of coffee and a yellow school bus.

Online:
http://www.vanitybarcodes.com/