When Barilla pasta was first sold in 1877, the only packaging pasta shops used was the pale blue paper the shopkeepers wrapped the yellow pasta in so customers could take it home. Over time, prepackaged boxes replaced shopkeepers' toil - but the colors blue and yellow remain central to the Barilla brand image to this day.
To mark the pasta they sold in a different way, Riccardo Barilla's wife Virginia first came up with the idea of selling Barilla pasta in packets so that it wouldn't get mixed up with other brands in the shops. The idea helped get the business out of debt, and started Barilla's long tradition of innovative packaging.
By 1916 Barilla packaging already had a blue background. And by the 1930s Barilla gave packs for its different pasta types distinctive characteristics - including the use of blue - so that they could be recognized immediately. Then, in 1952, designer Erberto Carboni built a coordinated image for all packaging - a groundbreaking idea for the time - using the unifying elements of a striped background on each piece and a linear typeface that contrasted with the italic font of the Barilla trademark.
In 1969 a white space was added to stratify the box into two communicative spaces - one informational, the other emotional. The product imagery changed over time, as well. From showing the shape of the product to showing it being cooked to showing it on the fork, ready to eat, the visuals evolved into a direct invitation to taste.
In the 1990s the focus shifted from sensory enticement to brand quality. The photographic imagery disappeared, the brand name was presented in the foreground, and the declaration "special mixture of durum wheat" was added. A window allowed for direct viewing of the product, finalizing a compositional structure that declares the high-quality nature of the product and that remains the Barilla look today.
