The Art and Fashion of Package Design

By David Luttenberger

A true fashion statement, or Judy Jetson's prom dress?

Only a packaging geek finds—then actually purchases—interesting packaging in an art museum gift shop. A recent pilgrimage to the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum in New York City to recharge my design inspiration batteries left me, honestly, bored to tears with the current exhibit, Fashion in Colors: 300 Years of Western Fashion. I accept full responsibility for not checking first to see what was on display.

Nonetheless, I tried my best to be respectful of the sensibility of the 1730's Rocco-inspired brocaded silk taffeta mantuas. I tried not to snort when I chuckled at Victor & Rolf's ability to recreate the roof of the Sydney Opera House on what I'm positive was Judy Jetson's prom dress, replete with "exaggerated volumes and layered details." I was (although I'm slightly embarrassed to admit it) quite amused by the leggy, color-keyed mannequins adorned in comic-strip-inspired mini-skirts—which were "obviously" a reflection of the social backdrop of mass consumerism reflected by the Pop Culture movement of the Sixties. Uh-huh, right.

In spite of the 12 bucks I shelled out for admission, I shuffled with purpose through all three floors of the Fashion exhibit on loan from the Kyoto Costume Institute. Lucky for me, Cooper-Hewitt is designed like Disney World—all exits lead to the gift shop.

That's where I struck package design pay dirt. All along four halogen-lighted chrome-and-glass-shelved aisles I was mesmerized by common, everyday utensils, trinkets, knick-knacks, bobbles, and doodads that had been reconfigured by contemporary designers into ingenious works of art and design. I spent two hours perusing a 200 square-foot space filled with fascinating objets d'art, all but two of which defy description by words.

A flat plastic pouch turns into a decorative and sturdy vase when filled with water.

Flower vases and Full/Fill bottles

D-Bros, a Tokyo-based design/creator of "products for living" utilized a polyester/polyamide/polyethylene lamination to create a uniquely utilitarian stand-up pouch flower vase, named Hope Forever Blossoming. Designers Ryosuke Uehara and Yoshio Watanabe capitalized on the refractive properties of light through translucent material and water to take advantage of cross-cross, gravure-printed patterns that create an optical illusion of depth and clarity when filled with water and set on a window sill.

The kicker to the entire design is how five cents' worth of flexible packaging material and fractions of a cent worth of ink can be converted into an art museum sticker price of $24.99. But with two pouch vases to a packet, it was a bargain at any price. Brilliant.

Converters and fillers looking for the ultimate haze-free, barrier PET water bottle need only look at what Luis Royal created for Portugal-based Damaso and Marinha Grande mglass. Unfortunately for PET resin processors, this PET container is made of crystal clear hand-blown glass.

The Museum of Modern Art has touted the design as: "An inventive recycling of a familiar shape, this piece celebrates the industrial aesthetic of plastic packaging." Fetching as it is, I somehow doubt blowers at Tiffany, Waterford, or Swarovski are frantically trying to reverse engineer the Full/Fill design. Amcor and Graham can also rest easy. The complete Full/Fill collection is the fruit of a design project that pairs young Portuguese designers with experienced senior designers and companies to create beautiful glass and crystal.

The exquisitely re-created glass Full/Fill collection of bottles are hand blown and crystal clear.

Complete with simulated side-wall structural hoop rings and the trademark PET petaloid base, the exquisitely re-created Full/Fill piece lacks only a neck finish and roll-on reclosure in its quest to emulate the venerable PET water bottle. It also lacks the commodity unit price PET affords. I plunked down $20 (non-member price, mind you) for a glass version at Cooper-Hewitt. Wow! I guess it does take a real packaging geek to see the art of packaging—and pay for it.

David Luttenberger, a certified packaging professional (CPP), is the director of Packaging Strategies, an intelligence briefing service for packaging markets, technologies, and businesses. He can be reached at 610-436-4220 ext. 18 or dluttenberger@packstrat.com.