The humble universal product code (UPC), the tiny barcode that appears on every package good, is getting a creative new approach. An article at the Wall Street Journal says that companies all over, from small CPG manufacturers to multi-national food giants, are beginning to incorporate the black and white codes into innovative designs on their packages. The Journal reports the trend has even spawned a few design companies that specialize in making these “vanity barcodes.”
For some companies, the desire to rethink barcodes comes from a need to keep a functional requirement from marring an otherwise good design. Shane Welch, president of Mad Scientists Brewing Partners LLC, told the Journal that when his company was launching a new product line of canned beer it was looking to create “the perfect can design.” Welch said when he realized his product needed “this big, ugly barcode” he thought, ”Why can't we do our own custom barcode?" The company’s new cans now include a barcode that looks like the Statue of Liberty and the New York City skyline.
But the desire to spice up barcodes requires more than a flair for design. It also requires an understanding of how barcodes work and the purpose they serve. Yael Miller, co-owner of Vanity Barcodes LLC, in Lakewood, N.J., told the Journal "there are certain things you can change, certain things you can't and then there is sort of a gray area." She explained there are standards for barcodes so that scanners read the barcodes properly.
A spokesman for GS1, the nonprofit organization that assigns and tests barcodes and administers the barcode standards, told the Journal that many of the new barcode designs are against GS1 guidelines. However, according to the story “GS1 doesn't object to vanity barcodes because of its role is to help companies create the barcodes they prefer.
