The Invisible Safety of the Pack

Not only does “good packaging” save the product, but also the feeling with consumers.

We’ve spoken about “immaterial” elements of a pack many times, with special reference to brand communication, the product used to convey cultural messages, etc. Now, even when talking about safety one simply can’t avoid noticing that, as well as the chemical/physical properties of a product, “good packaging” is designed to safeguard certain invisible, intangible elements, such as aromas, flavours, colors, the general aspect of the product and even the feeling that links it to each consumer.
Aromas, for example, can be a pleasant experience, if a perfume, but things change dramatically if they’re too strong and pervasive, invading the surrounding atmosphere.
The producer of Roquefort Société – the cheese with its strong aroma that one either loves or hates – is an expert on the matter.
Those who hate this particular cheese are quite happy to dine (temporarily) in the presence of the cheese, but once the wrapping has been opened and the cheese is left in the fridge, its strong aroma pervades and invades every other item in the fridge. Full merit, therefore, to the Roquefort Société packaging solution: a two-level pack plus foam cushion for virtually hermetic sealing.
On the other hand, when the flavour and aroma are the object of veneration, as in the case of cigars, the consumer feels that the producer has a sort of moral duty to avoid any loss in intensity and quality. The individual aluminium screw-top pack used by certain brands, plus the classic cellophane wrapping, has the defect of making the product less visible, but at the same time it protects the cigar from light and lost aroma, meaning that it should guarantee quality for loyal consumers. We’ve used the conditional tense here as, in practice, once the cigar has reached its destination safely, it has to face (like all other products) the harsh shock of reality and the foibles of the smoker, plus the fact that each individual perceives the flavours and aromas differently… meaning that it’s practically impossible to guarantee that the cigars have a single, uniform flavour/aroma.
Packaging becomes deceptively discrete and silent (even mimetic), when the aesthetic aspects of the product need to be guaranteed, something that’s very important for the Japanese market. Colorful-ru chewing-gum, for example, have their main characteristic embodied in their name, an absolute priority. In this case, what the company’s actually selling isn’t a new fruit flavour or less sugar and low calories, but rather a color experience. The main value to be protected is therefore the availability of the chewing-gum in a range of colours and organised by shade, ranging from light beige to dark burgundy. It’s thus worth the risk of over-packaging to guarantee stable positioning of the product. Thus, as well as an external wrapper (naturally transparent), the pack also includes a tiny plastic rack that forces the chewing-gum into a sorted order, from the moment of packaging to final and complete consumption.
In the pharma industry, product safety (chemical and physical) is, of course, crucial and unavoidable. In fact, administration methods over recent years have been dictated, to a certain extent, by the packaging. For example, if we recall the old classic glass pipette.
However, if we want to consider invisible immaterial safety, which deals with consumer psychology and his/her feeling for the product, we shouldn’t be surprised by the criticism coming from women for a certain type of packaging. This has happened with certain contraceptive pills, while perfectly guaranteeing the product, the producers had started to eliminate the use of the printed calendar that used to help women to take the Pill regularly.
Even if each woman is aware that certain guarantees – such as memory – are intangible and uncertain (as it’s a given fact that all women have forgotten to take the Pill at least once). Even the younger consumers, who aren’t accustomed to the traditional use of the product, have criticised this move, calling it psychological terrorism: their mental certainty was obvious compromised.
To conclude, maybe it’s just the infancy sector that can allow to play with the perception of safety. The huge lollipop disguised as a space weapon is conceived as a sweet-product and then, via its packaging, a weapon for attack/defence. Of course, it’s not true, and yet thanks to this combination of violence and sweetness, young consumers start to become familiar with the volatility of feelings and the absence of certainty in the real world. This sugary weapon can, at the same time, offer a feeling of strength and goodness, turning each child into a new Robin Hood. So, like this famous character, each child can spread a bit of “sweetness” on the face of his classmate and so ably cross the thin line that separates naive cruelty and extreme goodness.
The toy industry today is governed by some special rules these days, but there’s still a doubt for all the other products: is packaging really just a container without any other responsibility, apart from the protection of the goods within?

Maria Gallo designer, Co-ordinator for the Master in Packaging Design 2006 at the Istituto Europeo di Design (Milan).

The Shape of Today

Contemporaneity, the design project, packaging: free-spoken reflections of one of the most acknowledged exponents of contemporary design, Karim Rashid.

Sonia Pedrazzini

Karim Rashid is an Anglo-Egyptian designer who grew up in Canada and is resident in New York.
He is a multifaceted and prolific designer, he has designed all kinds of things, from cosmetics to furniture, to products for the home, to objects, to lights, clothes. He has imposed his creative touch on sectors such as design, graphics, communications, art, music (he is even a popular DJ) and his products have been used in films and in programs on MTV. Rashid’s work is much appreciated and sought-after by the big international brands (including, to cite but some, Sony, Armani, Shiseido, Prada, Issey Miyake, Yahoo) but also by young concerns that make design and innovation their own winning force, like the Californian concern Method, for which the designer has created dispensers and flacons revolutionary in concept and unusual in shape and use, pleasing to touch and appealing to the eye.
But not only this. His design projects are on show in the most important museums and art galleries the world over. He has also written, published, taught and held conferences around the world.
Karim Rashid considers himself a cultural provocateur and does not hesitate to express his ideas on design, on objects and on the contemporary world with force and conviction.

Karim, what is a “design project”?
I must define design. Design is not superfluous decoration. Design is not a bonsai arrangement, or hand painted decoration on flowerpots, this is all arts and craft. To design is to create, fashion, execute, or construct according to plan – to conceive and plan out in the mind, to make a drawing, pattern, or sketch for a specific program. Therefore it is a methodically planned program not an incidental craft. Design is really to develop a construct, a new condition for our manufactured world. I really define design as addressing and fulfilling our contemporary needs and desires. Design is also not about old styles or replicating past decoration but it is about developing contemporary solutions that are about the modus in which we live. A company today that engages designers and is design driven, deals with the social, political, creative, aesthetic and behavioural issues of today, not of the past. Today in a consumer society we do not need a lot but we desire a lot. Design is not anymore problem-solving but a way of developing solutions to these desires, to our poetic, aesthetic, emotional, and cultural aspirations. Design is also the means to progress and innovation, and design is a necessity for companies to develop goods that meet these new consumer expectations. If a company does not perpetually innovate today they cannot survive on the global playing field that has now opened and is here to stay. One cannot think locally anymore.

Did you have an ideal project (not necessary in design) that you had the possibility to realize?
I am proud to go beyond the industrial design field.
I have shown artwork now for five years (Sandra Gering gallery, Deitch Projects NYC, Elga Wimmer gallery NYC and many museums such as the Institute of Contemporary Art) and have been published in art reviews but the art world has trouble taking me seriously especially when you can buy my democratic products for very little. I am one of the few designers in the world that produces and shows fine art and I am proud of crossing that boundary.
I am also making music, film, and fashion. My real desire is to see people live in the modus of our time, to participate in contemporary world, and to release themselves from nostalgia, antiquated traditions, old rituals, meaningless kitsch. If human nature is to live in the past, to change the world is to change human nature. I realized that design has the power to radically change social, political, and human behavior, that design was a means to shaping our betterment, to sculpt a world of ease, a world, of beauty of intelligence, and of comfort, I realized that design is a term that describes the notion of contemporaneity, that when we refer to design, we are speaking about addressing contemporary issues, that we are shaping “the now”. When I was young imagined a world that is robotic, where all our objects and products would be produced without laborious hand labor. I also saw a world that would be seamless with technology, a place where we could communicate audibly, visually, in real time everywhere, anywhere, and I saw our environments as intelligent, energetic, hyper aesthetic places. I also believed that new visions of building, cars, products, furniture, clothing, art, would be really inspiring digital, infostethic, and I went to Expo 1967 in Montreal almost everyday with my father and brother and the world I saw being shaped by people like Buckminster Fuller, Sarrarin, Colani, Nelson, and so many others was the world that I was hoping I would grow up into. AND THAT WORLD IS HERE and even more beautiful, more digital, more visceral, more behavioral, more communicative, more phantasmal than ever and I want to continue that mission, so that we all can embrace and engage our contemporary world.

Concerning creativity and design. Do you follow a particular method when designing your products?
Every project has slightly different methodologies. About 50% of the time the ideas come to me during the first meeting; but I believe in a rigorous process so I try many concepts, many many sketches, researching processes, technologies, material, human behaviors and strangely I arrive back at the first idea. And with other projects it takes many concepts to get the perfect idea. I am inspired by words, by philosophy, by art, by popular culture, by music, by everyday life, by computers, and digital programs and tools and technology. But technology should now be seamless with the production of goods, the material, with the design process, and with the disruption, and recycling of the product. But it is not imperative that the consumer knows this. I think that the object should just play its human role and the technology take a back seat in making it democratic, high performance, poetic, and behavioral.

How do you see our future world?
Design will be our common landscape where it will not make a difference where something is made, who made it, but instead that it is experimental, behavioral, smart, seamless, soft, and human.
I believe that the new objects that shape our lives are transconceptual, multi-cultural hybrids; objects that can exist anywhere in different contexts, that are natural and synthetic, that are inspired through telecommunications, information, entertainment, technology, new behavior and production. Our object culture can captivate the energy of this contemporary universal culture of the digital age. The birth of new industrial processes, new materials, global markets all lend inspiration to reshaping our lives.

And about packaging?
It is time that all our products become beautiful and smart regardless of cost. Even the cheapest packages should be aesthetic! In the 21th Century every package is being reconsidered and designed. I believe that packaging is very necessary and can bring a greater, more engaging experience to people. Generally bottles in cosmetics become more important than the fragrance. But in cosmetics one is selling immateriality and there is so much work, expense, and complexity in creating scents, that the package must be the ambassador of that scent and communicate its essence. Essentially one is selling something immaterial that is complex and abstract so the bottles gives a fragrance, identity, brand, and a sense of the material interpretation.
Bottles have been overly embellished for hundreds of years and became quite monumental. Historically all products were far more decorative and ornate than objects today. They spoke of ritual, religion, class, luxury, royalty, and iconoclasm. Today high design gets relegated to a perfect rectangle; this is boring, we need a bottle that semantically speaks about the scent and attitude.
I designed many packages that have second functions (and utility) so that you never throw them out. I started this trend in cosmetic packaging.
I love designing cosmetics. I feel very comfortable in this field but I stay broad so that I never specialize in any field. I do not believe in specialization. I think that the world is borderless and I navigate between all the professions of Design, architecture, art, interiors, products, furniture, exhibitions, accessories, clothing, etc. Blurring these boundaries affords me to see each area, each typology differently and in a new way and each project inspires the next.

You designed the Prada monodose cosmetics, what can you tell us about that?
The concept of the Prada monodose packaging was the concept of travel, our nomadic existence, and being flexible to carry only one-time use doses that could be never be tainted by the outside air, so there are no germs or bacteria, so that you use perfectly fresh, concentrated, pure amounts that are no more than what is needed. So if you go on a trip you just take what you need, or if you go out at night, or to the office, you only take the right, perfectly sanitized amount. The packaging was complex and we developed 38 different small ampules, bottles, and vials, that were all developed from scratch being unlike existing packaging. It was a 3 year project with a great deal of engineering and research.

What is the role of objects in our society?
In the excrescence of goods, and the system of objects, the possibility of over-consuming, of addition, and immediate satisfaction of consumption is dangerous. We surround ourselves in life with effigies, objects, products, to find meaning in our existence, and to create a sense of memory, of presence, and of belonging. But we also consume to occupy time and to fulfil some strange need of reward and ego. We will forever have objects in our world, and I am not advocating not consuming them but rather being hyper conscious of our things and love and enjoy them. If not, we had better do without them. Objects denote our time, place, and relationship with the outside world and others. Objects can have a phenomenal relationship with our daily lives and us and at the same time objects can be perpetual obstacles in our life, complicating it, and creating stress. To add more to one’s life, one can also subtract or remove, so that instead of consuming, one “deconsumes”, a theory of addition by subtraction where less can be more. Yet not a minimal or reductive approach but instead, a way of enriching ones life, of increasing experiences through beautiful things, through things that we love, to edit our choices and have a richer life – ultimately creating the most important luxury of the 21st century-: free-time. If we can remove banalities, frustrations, time-consuming scenarios, with time on our hands we can spend more time thinking, creating, loving, being, and use our time in a more constructive way, taking on a more contributive role.
This could also just make us happier beings in that we are too bombarded with pettiness, with mediocre issues, with banal experiences.
A form of growth by subtraction.

The Moon and the Peonia

In Hong Kong the top professionals of graphics go under the name of Kan & Lau. Tradition and the contemporary, East and West combine in the packaging of two reputed Chinese designers.

Sonia Pedrazzini

Kan & Lau Design Consultants is one of the most important graphics agencies in Hong Kong. The studio has been operating since 1976 and its two founders, Kan Tai-keung and Freeman Lau, are two well-known designers who have won many awards and acknowledgements at both national and international level. In 1993 Kan was selected by IDEA as one of the 100 best designers, whereas Lau – leading figure in the industrial design segment – won the Hong Kong “artist of the year” award. The agency concerns itself with design and creativity all round: from advertising to coordinated image, from packaging to industrial design, exhibition design, cultural activities, even public art. Not only that, thanks to a valid team of international, multicultural co-workers, the development of new products covers both the Asian as well as American markets. East and West encounter and meet up in the form of packs, boxes, bottles, products and objects in general, all rigorously highly professional.
Among the array of creations by the two designers some of the more recent deserve a mention, like the trophy for the China Top Ten Benefiting Laureus Sport for Good of the year 2004 – better known as Sports Oscar – made by combining the stylised silhouettes of the athletes in movement, the figures being drawn from the Dao Yin map, one of the oldest testimonies of sporting activities; or the logo of the new CCTV News TV channel, where the English word ‘news’ has been integrated with the Chinese ideogram for correspondent, great care being taken in blending the eastern calligraphy and the western alphabet; or again, the work on the concept and coordinated image of the Chinese children’s clothing brand Aico, where mascots and cloth dolls tip a wink at the graphics of the Japanese Manga.

We interviewed Kan Tai Keung, one of the founder members of the studio and since 2003 lecturer at the Cheung Kong School of Art and Design at the University of Shantou.

Considering the huge economic and social changes underway, how has packaging in China changed over these last decades and how will it change in the future?
China’s economic growth in the last decade was speedy and is there for all to see. Social improvements have helped strengthen local markets as people’s purchasing power increased. Nowadays Chinese enterprises are not only appreciated for the quantity produced, but also for their care for quality of their products. Hence a good product design is fundamental. Place the former in a competitive scenario and you can get a successful local brand. A unique design and packaging contributes to sharpening the competitive edge.

What are the main differences between packaging created by an oriental and a western designer?
I would say that oriental and western designers aim at the same thing. That is to fulfil the basic function of design. Oriental designers have been influenced by the modern western design concept. However, they are better positioned to meet the needs of the oriental market as they are intimately acquainted with oriental living habits. They are more suited for building up the branding culture of local enterprise.

Is it easy to become a successful packaging designer in China?
Packaging design in China is going through a phase of development. There is still huge room for improvement. The industry needs talent to help foster this growth. For example, designers should construct their own ethics and keep up a level of high quality. Moreover, how enterprises cooperate with designers and how they respect the industry is important. The design profession in China is still in its infancy, a lot more still needs to be done.

Could you briefly mention one of your most successful projects?
Our work for Wingwah Cakeshop is a good example. Initially a traditional Chinese bakeshop that only served local customers, after working on the brand identity, designing new packaging and a new brand logo, Wingwah was turned into a modern, international type confectioner, so much so that it has rapidly become one of the most successful Chinese confectionary souvenir and gift stores.
The new brand identity and packaging design helped pave the way for its highly successful market expansion.

On this count, we wish to add to Kan Tai Keung’s words that, as far as the new company logo is concerned, the characters of the name have been inscribed in a square and a circle, respectively corresponding to the shape of a Chinese cake and a full moon.
A peonia is formed at the intersection of the two figures, another historic symbol of the company and thus worthy of mention, inasmuch as, the designer states, when you renew the image of a client you can in no way afford to overlook their origins, their history and their philosophy; in turn, as far as the packaging is concerned, the shop carrier bags, bags for the traditional Chinese sausage and the packs for the “wife” and “mini moon” cakes were all revamped.
The classic “traditional moon cake” only underwent restyling, so as not to impinge on its timehonored image. Indeed, some of the features of the preceding packaging were kept – the color blue with the moon and peonia – but as well as the new logo, other significant improvements have been made.

The Invisible Wrapping

Lush* is revolutionising the way of selling cosmetics. Completely fresh. Completely hand-made. Completely devoid of packaging. And yet…

Sonia Pedrazzini

Entering the shop, we stop for a moment, amazed and confused. A wave of perfumes and fragrances engulfs us, body and soul. Lavender. Banana. Chocolate. Rosemary. Rose. Oriental spices. Celery and ginger. Musk. Milk and honey. Orange blossom. Mint. Tea. We do not know if we are in a chemist’s, a perfume shop or a dairy. On the counter, large shapes, like cheeses, are being cut into slices, weighed, and wrapped in greaseproof paper. We can choose to buy a few hundred grams of fruit-fragrance solid shampoo or a jar of soft almond cream; a little packet of clay or a sphere (a musket ball) of jasmine. These are cosmetics which are juicy, luxurious, they make your mouth water. They are Lush!

Lush was founded in England in 1995 by a group of vegetarians, experts in natural cosmetics, under the leadership of Mark Constantine, the originator of the project. The Lush philosophy is based on several very successful concepts, such as individual products being hand-made and signed with the maker’s name; using only natural ingredients and fresh fruit and vegetables; totally rejecting the use of raw materials derived from experimentation on animals. To this is added the unique presentation of the cosmetics. Apparently without any traditional form of packaging, in reality they are wrapped in a material which is imperceptible but extremely strong, thin and diffuse, a packaging of the mind you might say, but one which with regard for the surface of the contents takes into consideration its context, and consequently our imagination. It is in fact the context which strikes you, as soon as you set foot inside a Lush shop. It is conceived as a chemist’s or a dairy of former times, with polite, attentive assistants, counters piled high with all God’s gifts, full of fragrant, beautifully displayed merchandise. You are struck by such an abundance of sights and smells, you are enticed into feasting your eyes on it without fully realising what there actually is on sale. Whoever enters a Lush shop is literally grabbed by the throat… and by nostalgia. Everything is made by hand, and the huge solid blocks of soap or the wide bowls of freshly-made creams, not yet divided into portions for sale, bring back memories of grandmother’s house, of the kitchen, the garden, big families, and therefore of things which are good and genuine and real, just like in the old days.

The strong, penetrating fragrances, unmasked by paper or other wrapping materials which might stop them spreading, circulate freely in the air and, paradoxically, “wrap” the product with a packaging which is far more effective than paper, cardboard, bags, film, jars and bottles. The smells reawaken memories, unfold images and dreams, revive feelings. It is no coincidence that we talk of wearing a perfume; perfume is a barrier, like clothes, an invisible wrapping; an object without packaging which breathes and exudes fragrance has no need of further emphasis, it is already of itself a little piece of “packaged memory”. And also, in the magic natural world of Lush, the wonderful living colours and the tactile textures of soap, shampoo, creams, facemasks and treatments surely hold more fascination and conviction (because they can be seen and touched) than the graphics on the boxes in the perfume shop.
To sum up, the packaging of merchandise, which in other places seduces and entraps through traditional visual means of communication, is used here in a new way, becoming indirect and non-material. It is not intended to protect or to contain, (for this, Lush has invented solid cosmetics, without water or preservatives); it does not need to offer trivial information, or to attract through brand names, script or graphics. It denies itself, but in doing so it makes a much deeper impression and catches our dreams in a net of the senses.

Interview with Mark Constantine, founder of Lush

The Lush brand is very recognisable and has a very strong image; how did you manage to reconcile this visibility with the choice of “zeroing” the product packaging?
We enjoy making spectacular displays of the products. It’s the perfect way of presenting the fresh ingredients that we use to create our cosmetics. Our decision to present beauty products unpackaged is reminiscent of market stalls where this is only the fresh product and the salesman to make the sale.

Even if the packaging of Lush products is virtually inexistant, all the same a specific packaging design approach can be noted in the paper and in the bags used to pack loose products, in the jars, in the presentation and in the very shape of the products. What kind of aesthetics do you refer to and what choices have you made in creating this type of “antipackaging”.
The aesthetics we refer to is the natural beauty of the ingredients. It’s really inspiring to us to see fruit and vegetables when they are freshly delivered to markets. We love looking at the raw beauty of nature. The way everything looks in the shop is designed to have impact and this also applies to the packaging we use, such as pots and carrier bags, all of which bear the Lush logo.

Why has Lush decided to associate cosmetics with food, to the point of making this the strongpoint of its image?
The idea of freshness is what drives the link between food and cosmetics. We believe we have created a new beauty category by using fresh ingredients. There is all the goodness we need in food, and since we use food and natural ingredients, it makes sense that the skin benefits from the freshness, too.

How do people react when faced with your fresh products sold without packaging?
It’s very unusual not to have a reaction from people and generally they are very complimentary. Lush is a very sensual brand and for some the smell is a bit shocking.

Can we really imagine a future in which products, all types of product, can be sold without packaging?
I like to imagine a future in which all types of products can be sold without packaging.

Isn’t there the risk that the absence of packaging makes your products difficult to use and preserve at home?
We don’t use lots of preservatives in our products anyway which is another advantage of creating fresh products. Much of the fun we getting out of developing products is in making something in a form that works well, that people will enjoy and that is easy to use and store. An example of this are the recently launched NO SHIT COLOUR AND SHINE, which is a range of solid blocks of hennas for the hair.

To finish off, is Lush really indicating a sales approach, or might one say even a Lebensfilosofie for the future, or is it merely an advertising ploy?
Nothing about Lush is a “marketing ploy”. It’s what we do, we love it and we hope our customers love it too!

Translator’s note*
“Lush” comes from the English, meaning luxuriant (vegetation), juicy (fruit), sumptuous or luxurious. All the meaning of the brand in one striking word.

The Breath of Gaea

Very often the world of cosmetics draws inspiration from nature. More than not it is the products that stand out for their fresh and delicate formulas, but, in the case of the young Greek concern Korres, the packaging also manages to transmit “the breath of the Earth” at its best.

Sonia Pedrazzini

Korres natural products is a concern that has been dealing with beauty and nature since 1996, direct emanation of Athen’s leading homeopathic chemists. Currently Korres offers a variety of around 150 body and hair treatments, sun products and herbal based compounds. The ingredients are all naturally derived and high quality; mineral oils and their derivates (such as paraffin) are not used but only vegetable oils compatible with the skin. The silicon based compounds have also been replaced by special vegetable combinations that do not block the pores of the skin but nourish and soften the same. Thanks to advanced extraction technologies, the active principles of the plants remain unaltered and guarantee maximum efficiency. These are the main values around which the concern has built up a success that is growing continuously but, as well as the quality of the product, what strikes one about the pack is the graphics used to clad the solutions. The flacons, tubes and jars are without frills, sober, essential, designed to carry out their functions. The images that cover the same on the other hand are anything but minimal: they are close-ups of flowers, seeds, fruit, herbs instilled with a life of their own. They are visual incursions into the world of nature and its vegetable and mineral contents, that appear different when seen close to; they become abstract patterns, vibrations of color, movement, waves, and are a foretaste of an immersion into a world of wellness.
If packaging ought to express its contents, Korres’ packaging surely goes further, it acts on the psyche and transports the mind far afield. Yet there is not only nature in the photos, but there is also the analytical gaze of the entomologist, who scrutinizes the interstices of the world, and there is the creative gaze of the artist, who freely composes matter. Hence these packaging items are neither naïf, nor are they banal and they poetically represent the cold distance of the scientific approach along with the warmth of life at one and the same time.
Impackt interviewed the art director of Korres natural products Giannis Kouroudis, who is responsible for the company image and winner of many awards and acknowledgements, among which the First Packaging Award & Merit for Corporate Identity 2002, the Golden Star Packaging Design Award 2003, and the First EB-E Award 2004 in packaging and advertising.

What is the concept and the philosophy that lie at the basis of the Korres image?
We have mainly based our approach on minimalist and geometric abstraction; at the same time the company image in its entirety aims at showing quality in aesthetic terms, without in any way overshadowing the natural feature of the product.

How would Korres like to be defined as a cosmetics company?
Our company concept is a well-balanced combination of three basic elements. Firstly, thanks to the company’s pharmaceutical background, every process is well documented and is produced following pharmaceutical type procedures. On top of that, all active ingredients are naturally-derived. The third element is the “joy” that features throughout our entire product range. Our intent is to offer products that are good for you, that are attractive both inside and out, which means that they smell good, have a pleasant texture that of course have nice packaging.
Why did Korres come into being? To satisfy a specific market, to respond to given needs?
Korres natural products was founded in 1996, primarily due to the demand from the customers of the Korres chemist’s for natural and homeopathically compatible cosmetics. Hence, working in that direction, plant extracts with significant medicinal properties were used for the creation of safe and effective herbal products. Now, despite commercial success and broadscale recognition, product development has stayed ingredient-oriented and not marketing-oriented. We assiduously take part in research & development programs, and we are constantly seeking new ideas to best exploit plant properties in cosmetics.

Who is your ideal customer?
At this moment in time our ideal end user is not demographically or socially definable. Our products are intended for men and women of different origins and social standing, persons that share our ideas, common values and even the same aesthetic tastes: we have many consumers and this is why our products are used on markets that are apparently very different from each other.

Can you tell us about your role in the company and how you normally work?
I am the company art director and am responsible for the company’s image in its entirety. My team works on product and communication design, on organising shows and fairs, on merchandising and even on our stationery, all this on a daily basis. I normally develop new products or new concepts along with Gorge Korres, and our working relationship, that also thrives on a strong personal friendship, is very inspiring for both of us.

Can you recall a special feature of your Korres experience?
There is a funny story linked to some of our new brochures and our company calendar, all having been given an intentionally rough finish. Initially some people were led to believe that they were mere proofs or that a mistake had occurred during their binding, and that they weren’t the real product.

Korres has been able to give itself a very strong image thanks also to its packaging: how did you achieve this?
While my influence was certainly decisive, our success is due to the energy of a team of young designers who work at my side and with whom I share common values with. Along with our team George Korres, the designer – Stavros Papagiannis, my colleague Chrysafis and all the members of the general Korres team have all helped build this image by pitching in with their personality and their aesthetic taste.

Who is the photographer who created the striking images that deck your packs?
Our photographer-designer is Stavros Papagiannis, a real talent. He has the task of creating the company image and he is capable of turning a simple idea into a work of art; I mean to say his photos are the starting point for all our concepts.

As art director, what is your point of view on packaging in the cosmetics sector? Are there new trends or behaviours that are worth pursuing?
During the last 15 years, consumers have become more aware of other parameters besides the quality of the product, for example they pay greater attention to how the packaging has been made. This is why design plays an evermore important role on the market in general, and not only in the cosmetics sector.
The above explains why a growing number of manufacturers are paying more and more attention to packaging, a trend heralded by Korres. Indeed predicting future trends is a very tricky business. For us trends are made by people and thus depend aboveall on their values and on a host of personal aesthetic tastes, these being always in the making.