2012-03-21
Clay pots, waterskins, glass bottles, massive oil containers, tiny vials of precious perfumes, the Coca Cola bottle, the upside down ketchup bottle – the bottle shaped swan, or the… swan shaped bottle. So many shapes, materials, needs and functions.
Throughout the years, we have witnessed transformations in customers' needs and demands. The rate at which packages change is more rapid than the pace of innovations within the products themselves, for not every day is a beverage like Coca Cola, or a patent for tearless shampoo is invented. Here is where efforts of product differentiation come in, by means of graphic branding, and the three dimensional design of the product's container.
The three dimensional design is the one that is etched in the costumers' memory, in their sense of touch; the bottle's shape can be identified long after the label has fallen or pilled off, the bottle can even be recognized in the dark. In the fields of food products, beverages, cosmetics and cleaning products, liquids and sometimes powders are often packaged.
The packaging is the one that defines a permanent, recognizable shape for essentially shapeless, amorphic products. Unlike shoes in a cardboard package, when we bring home a fabric softener we never remove the package and throw it away; the package is the product, the package's life span is at least equal to that of the product it contains, if not higher - for who among us doesn't use the ice cream box for storage long after the ice cream itself has been gulped down? The package is a device, an instrument, a functional object that dictates the means of use and storage, throughout the life of the product.
During the product development and design process, the development team engages in considerations of ergonomics, human engineering, structure and resilience. Considerations made in the design of a handle or a spray container are similar to the ones made when designing devices and instruments with carrying or activation handles. These are mass-produced products, which can be found in every household, and are within the reach of the average consumer: investing in a good design process will lead to a top quality product, which will be distributed to a large clientele.
An innovative package, easy to grip and to pour from, with an added value in its everyday use - will convey a message to the clients and surprise them in the real-time application of the product - that is a brand promise truly delivered. The "Clean" dishwashing liquid, designed by Studio Armadillo in 2005, is a bottle that also functions as a soap dispenser. This is a package that also serves as a practical item, and the marketing requirement was that the product's pricing would remain similar to that of a standard bottle liquid, in spite of the logistic and technological challenge of designing a container of such non-standard proportions and formation.
A package that is also an object, a package with added value, is something one likes to keep, refill, reuse – wouldn't that pose a threat to the manufacturers who aspire to keep production going, to keep their costumers consuming? As mentioned, consumers already have the habit of extending the life of "cool" packages, inventing and improvising new functions for them. This habit can serve as an opportunity for manufacturers and designers to invest thought in a new kind of packages, with the purpose of prolonging their life span and postponing their arrival at the landfill. An environmentally oriented thinking, which already exists in the industry, is to lower the product's plastic percentage, by designing more durable containers that can be produced from thinner material, thus producing cheaper and less polluting products. While these packages are made with smaller amounts of plastic, their arrival at the landfill is sooner.
At Studio Armadillo we develop concepts for durable packages, intended for continued use, such as detergent bottles that turn into bowling pins, or laundry powder boxes that can be turned into flowerpots. While these products are not as slim and low-priced as some, they can be enjoyed for a long period of time.
The water bottles we buy are another cause for the rise in waste levels, and apparently we continue to purchase them while they cost 500 times as much as tap water, mainly because of their image.
In 2005 Paris municipality decided to upgrade the image for tap water. In addition to campaigning that the local tap water is the same quality as mineral water, the municipality decided to use image-upgrading design, and initiated a project where locals were given a glass carafe created by fashion designer Pierre Cardin, carrying the logo of public water company Eau de Paris.
In London, a similar project took place in 2008, named "London on Tap"– a tap water bottle design contest. Among the judges was renowned architect Zaha Hadid. The fantasy is to return to the refill system for more and more products, reminiscent of the days of the milkman and glass bottles. To design and produce sustainable, high quality and eye catching bottles for soap, shampoo, oil etc. - and refill them whenever they run out at preordained refill posts located in stores, which will also look significantly different to the ones we know today. Projects of this nature already exist in different countries worldwide. There is no attempt here to subvert the livelihood of the package manufacturers, nor that of package designers: we'll all continue to have plenty of work, we'll just be doing things differently. The brand manufacturers who take this change upon themselves will enjoy a massive contribution - to keeping their brand promise.
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