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The Pack That Tells the Whole Story:
Award-Winning Sustainable Packaging for Ho Nuts

Experience Design
Packaging Design
Ho Nuts

{ Project Overview }

We created Ho Nuts for Farmer Brand to show that even the most classic snack can be engaging and environmentally conscious.

Packaging waste remains a key concern in Singapore. According to the Singapore Environment Council and KPMG, the country threw away 532,000 tonnes of domestic packaging waste in 2021, worth $1.8 billion. Consumers are paying attention. In the same 2022 study, 95% said they were inclined to buy eco-friendly packaging, but 53% would only do so if it did not cost more. For a traditional snack, that sets a demanding brief. The pack has to be sustainable, efficient to produce and appealing enough to pick up. Our answer was a pack that tells the whole story, guided by our OutTheCube Packaging Formula, with every part designed to meet a specific objective.

Uncle Ho and his monkey friend, Kacang, carry the heritage. FSC-certified paper and a flat-pack structure deliver sustainability with cost efficiency built in. And a single scan brings the characters to life in 3D and reveals where the peanuts come from.

We led the branding, packaging design and AR experience, working with Applied Colours on printing, OVOL Singapore on eco-friendly paper and ShopXR on 3D and augmented reality. The result won the Singapore Packaging Star Award 2024 in the Commercial Sales & Display category.

Meeting modern expectations without losing a traditional snack’s character

{ Creative Challenge }

Meeting modern expectations without losing a traditional snack’s character
  1. 01

    01 Ho Nuts had to feel nostalgic and fresh at the same time, honouring a traditional snack while appealing to today’s consumers.

  2. 02

    02 The pack had to be eco-friendly and food-safe, without losing the visual appeal that helps a snack stand out on the shelf.

  3. 03

    03 Consumers want sustainable packaging but many will not pay more for it, so the pack had to make efficient use of material and production cost.

  4. 04

    04 A small pack has little room to tell a heritage story, and consumers had no easy way to see where the peanuts come from or how they are processed.

{ The Solution }

A pack where every design decision answers a specific objective

  1. 01 Developed the Ho Nuts story around Uncle Ho and Kacang, giving a traditional snack an emotional hook that today’s consumers can connect with.

  2. 02 Specified FSC-certified, food-safe paper and sustainable inks, so the pack meets sustainability expectations from material to print.

  3. 03 Engineered a flat-pack structure to optimise material use and cost efficiency, keeping sustainable packaging commercially viable.

  4. 04 Integrated augmented reality on the front of the pack, extending the brand story beyond the limits of print.

  5. 05 Turned the nutrition label into a gateway to a farm-to-table traceability journey, giving consumers a clear view of the product’s origin.

A pack where every design decision answers a specific objective

{ THE DIFFERENCE }

Ho Nuts before
Ho Nuts after
{ BEFORE }{ AFTER }

{ Brand Story }

Meet Uncle Ho and Kacang: a heritage story built for today’s consumers

Roasted peanuts have been part of Farmer Brand’s story for decades, and Ho Nuts needed to carry that heritage in a way today’s consumers would connect with. Rather than rely on nostalgia alone, we built the brand around two characters: Uncle Ho and his monkey friend, Kacang (Malay for “nut”), who join forces to make the tastiest peanuts.

Characters give a brand a warm, human face that a logo alone cannot, and they give the story somewhere to go, from the pack to the AR experience. Every element, from the storytelling illustrations to the QR-enabled experiences, was designed to balance the brand’s roots with its relevance today.

Uncle H and Monkey and Kacang
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{ Immersive Experience }

Augmented reality packaging that extends the brand story beyond print

A snack pack has limited space, yet the Ho Nuts story needed room to grow. We integrated augmented reality so that scanning the front of the pack with a smartphone brings Uncle Ho and Kacang to life in 3D animation. It makes brand storytelling accessible to anyone with a phone, and turns a quick purchase into an interactive moment that deepens the consumer’s connection with the brand.

AUGMENTED REALITY

{ Sustainable Materials }

Sustainable packaging materials, specified from paper to print

Sustainability had to be visible and credible, not just claimed. We specified FSC-certified, food-safe paper for the pack, which comes from responsibly managed sources, and paired it with sustainable inks. The result is a sustainability story the brand can stand behind, on a material consumers can see and touch.

Sustainable Materials

{ Structural Design }

A flat-pack structure engineered for material and cost efficiency

Sustainable packaging only succeeds commercially if it does not push up costs, and more than half of Singapore consumers will not pay extra for it. So we treated cost efficiency as a design requirement from the start. We engineered the pack to fold flat, which optimises material use and cost efficiency. For the brand, sustainability becomes a sound business decision as well as a responsible one.

Structural Design

{ Brand Touchpoints }

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Brand Touchpoints file 2
Brand Touchpoints file 3
Brand Touchpoints file 4
Brand Touchpoints file 5

{ Product Traceability }

Farm-to-table traceability that turns transparency into trust

Sustainability is becoming essential for doing business in more regions, and consumers are more conscious of the brands they choose. So we turned the nutrition label into a gateway: scanning it opens a farm-to-table journey that shows where the peanuts come from and how they are processed. Showing origin and process helps the brand meet sustainability standards, tells a richer brand story and is designed to build consumer confidence and loyalty.

Product Traceability

{ Outcome and Impact }

Award-winning packaging recognised for innovation, functionality and design impact

Ho Nuts won the Singapore Packaging Star Award 2024 in the Commercial Sales & Display category. Organised by the Singapore Manufacturing Federation and the Packaging Council of Singapore, the award recognises excellence in packaging innovation, functionality and design impact.

The lessons reach beyond one snack. Expectations on packaging keep rising: the EU’s Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation began to apply in August 2026 and covers all packaging placed on the EU market, regardless of where it comes from. For brand owners, Ho Nuts shows that heritage, sustainability and shelf appeal do not have to compete. When every design decision is tied to a clear objective, even a humble peanut pack can deliver all three.

“The Ho Nuts packaging design project represents what we value most at Creativeans, meaningful storytelling through design. We are proud to have transformed a familiar local snack into an immersive experience that celebrates heritage while embracing sustainability and technology.”

Kimming Yap logo
Kimming Yap
Managing Director, Creativeans

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