Mattel Unveils Barbie Packaging Crafted More ‘Efficiently’ With Adobe Firefly AI
Barbie’s getting a digital makeover. Thankfully for many longtime collectors with a stickler for tradition, it’s got nothing to do with her appearance or wardrobe.
While everyone fixates on the pretty face staring back at them, as it seems, plenty of time is poured into the design of the doll’s packaging itself. With Barbie’s popularity on the rise and new toy lines constantly hitting shelves, Mattel needed to switch to faster and “more efficient” workflows. So it teamed up with Adobe and employed a new designer, the Firefly generative AI model, to help out with ideation.
Traditionally, designers have had to depend on rough sketches called “bluelines” to brainstorm box designs. This old-school method often led to multiple revisions and lengthy review cycles, which slowed down the journey from concept to store shelf, and resulted in launch delays.
Now, using simple text prompts on Adobe Firefly, Mattel’s designers have been able to whip up detailed, high-fidelity backdrop and packaging ideas that closely match their vision in a shorter amount of time.
Image via Adobe
While the toy giant’s design teams have long relied on Adobe tools such as Substance 3D to create digital mockups, they’ve taken Firefly into their wing for the productivity boost it provides.
Video via Adobe
A couple of the Firefly-assisted boxes are already on store shelves. Among them is the Barbie Signature 2024 Holiday Doll, brought to life with a prompt like, “Gold square sculpted frame with intertwined red ribbons and red presents with gold bows, white background.”
Image via Adobe
Image via Mattel
Image via Mattel
Photoshop’s Generative Expand and Generative Fill provided the finishing touches, enhancing design elements and adding extra space for different packaging sizes.
Image via Adobe
Image via Adobe
For the Sue Bird Barbie Role Model Doll, Firefly helped capture the excitement of a basketball court, even throwing in unexpected elements like stadium lights to amp up the energy, with the description: “Basketball court in stadium, crowd in the background seats, view of standing on the court looking out, basketball board and net angled perspective, side three quarter view.”
Image via Adobe
Image via Mattel
“Bringing Adobe Firefly into our design process has created better alignment between our creative and marketing teams, eliminating time-intensive review cycles that often limited our ability to finesse and polish our packaging designs,” explains Barbie staff packaging designer Sal Velazquez. “And while the efficiency gains were welcomed across the organization, we continue to be impressed with the imaginative ideas that Firefly generates from our text prompts.”
