In late 2008, the very successful online fashion store Net-a-Porter announced that they were launching a “discreet packaging” service – purchases could now be sent in brown paper bags, as opposed to their trademark, elegant black packaging. The e-mail informing of the new service featured the headline “You’ve been shopping – we won’t tell.”

The arrival of the so-called “Brown bag luxury” was mostly a way of simply disguising indulgent shopping – to avoid invoking envy or hostility from less fortunate neighbours and friends. But is also signaled a change in the financial crisis consumer’s mind; stepping away from ostentatious luxury. Net-a-Porter’s move was particularly interesting since their luxury packaging is credited with a part of their success – it’s an integral part of the shopping experience they provide, making it closer to real life boutique shopping.

Mainly, the redefinition of luxury is not merely about playing down the bling. Credit crunch or not, there has been a growing fatigue about luxury brands, that just justify their high prices with the status they represent instead of matching it with uniqueness and superior craftsmanship. Aspects such as environmental concerns and working conditions has also made their mark on how we think about luxury. One obvious way to signal craftsmanship, as well as an unique experience, is to include an element of craft in the packaging, especially when the packaging is an integral part of the product. These are two brands that have worked in different ways with their packaging to convey a sense of well crafted, artisan luxury goods worth spending your money on.

Bois D’Alexa handcrafted scented candles are specially created and poured in Grasse, France by historical candle makers, using lead-free 100% cotton wicks. Each candle is incased in a black French glass with an elegant lead-free pewter lid. The etching on the lid is hand done by artisans.

COTO is a luxury fashion accessories company in NYC, with quite unique packaging. COTO cuff links are packed in tiny glass vials sealed with a cork, while ties are in round capsule boxes. When shipped, COTO’s products come embedded in reindeer moss.

(COTO also talks about their products in a very “redefined luxury” way: “Utilizing nature-borrowed, sustainable materials, we create a limited collection for those who appreciate the details. By using carefully selected components, each product reveals a familiar, almost vintage quality in character and craftsmanship. They complement a style of understated sophistication – for the sartorial and sustainably minded.”)

(Photos from Lovelypackage.com and Reubenmiller.com)

These last years, the environment has been so much talked about, that it would be rather weird if it didn’t influence how we package our products. Packaging is of course a major culprit when it comes to our ecological footprint – from the production of different substrates, via the impact of packaging size and shape on transport, to the waste it eventually becomes. Therefore, much packaging by eco-conscious brands has been designed with the environment in mind in different ways.

However, a certain look of naturalness, dominated by unbleached and unprinted kraft board and simple (often intentionally uneven) screen printing, seems to be just as important to brands. Sending a clear signal to consumers that they’re doing something for the environment by buying these products is of course important – the sales argument of eco-friendliness should be clearly visible on the shelf. In some of these products, though, the natural look does not reflect an environmental benefit in the product itself, but just a general connotation of naturalness in other aspects: fresh ingredients for a meal instead of industrially produced frozen food, or good-for-you functional juices. In these cases, premium qualities are communicated with the absence of expensive looking packaging (foiling, UV coating, etc) – something I’ll return to in my next post which will cover The Other Side of Luxury.

For brands like cosmetics company Pangea Organics, the eco packaging thinking goes way beyond the look. Their clever glueless box, pictured below, is soy printed on 80% post-consumer single-ply uncoated paperboard, and carbon neutrally manufactured with 100% green electricity. An excellent example of a brand that’s truly consistent in delivering its brand promise.

Glueless box by Pangea Organics.

New Leaf 100% Recycled paper goods designed by Willoughby Design.

Scratch food packaging designed by Brandy.

M13 functional juice packaging designed by Betterdaze.

Basic Shapes toy packaging designed by Coöp.

Empty paperbags to be folded into animals, for the benefit of WWF, designed by Magdalena Czarnecki.

Cascade Green beer packaging designed by Landor Sydney.

(Pictures via The Dieline)

The prevalence of retro styled packaging is not a new trend, but seems to have really taken off this year. This is probably linked to the current economic climate. Hard times seem to bring more nostalgia for the good ole days – nostalgia which translates into visual culture, for example through consumer product packaging. In an unstable world, it’s not surprising that we reach for something safe from the shelf; a kind of visual comfort food if you will.

The perhaps most extreme example of taking advantage of consumers’ crisis-induced love of times gone by is companies actually going back to older packaging designs. The last picture below shows just such a phenomenon – vintage styled General Mills cereal boxes that were sold at Target in February and March this year. Another example of this is of course the much written about Throwback edition of Pepsi and Mountain Dew.

But probably, a part of the turn towards the intricacies of vintage packaging can also be explained in terms of broader design trends; the modernist hegemony of the early 00′s started in time to seem  limiting to designers. Elegant as a simple, stark graphic approach may be, it can also mean a risk for brand anonymity. With the whole arsenal of retro ornament and imagery at hand, the designer might be better equipped to bring out the personality and history of the brand. This way of connecting with a brand’s story is of course in line with the trend of consumers seeking out the local, the authentic and the obscure.

Booths Originals heritage range designed by Camilla Lilliesköld.

Irving Farms coffee designed by Louise Fili.

Loto Massage Oils designed by Arutza Onzaga, P576.

Mommy Francis takeaway packaging designed by ilovedust.

Painted Pretzel pretzel packaging designed by Yael Miller.

General Mills cereal boxes on the shelf.

Half of 2009 has passed. It might be an appropriate time for some recapitulation of trends, that have emerged or intensified this year in the field of packaging. At least three clear trends can be identified, that I will briefly explain and exemplify over the same number of posts.

Packaging is of course, like other forms of visual communication, deeply submerged in culture. Therefore, though some trends seem to emerge solely as self referencing fashions among design agencies, they can often on closer inspection be seen as a reaction to overlying tendencies in the world around us. (Which strengthens my view, that to excel in working with brand communication, you above all have to be interested in what happens in the world. Without being curious, and knowledgeable, about life, people, trends, economy or politics, you can not expect the pieces of communication you produce to actually communicate to people.) With this in mind, there’s no surprise that packaging this year has been steering towards The Safety of Yesteryear, The Other Side of Luxury and The Goodness of Nature. These are the trends that I’ll look into for the next three posts.