About

Hello World!

It’s Alessandra, a student in Bocconi University, Milan, who would like to pose a question to anyone interested:

What do you feel when you go to an Esselunga store or a monobrand shop, to a big cloth-store  in Milano city or a little pretty boutique in the touristy Capri, to an old perfumery in Paris or to a Blockbuster?

Ideally, you could say: “I don’t know: they are so different!”. But, WHY? and, after due consideration, you could add: “the places are different, the idea of distribution is different, the goods are different, the prices are different, the shop-assistants are different…” Ok,ok. You are right, but not totally right. I think there is a leitmotiv among these experiences, something like this:

when putting on a store or traditional shop shelf, only one element of the more mixed product is visible to the viewer, only the package. Everywhere the viewer s’ curiosity is caught by PACKAGE. On the shelves, in fact, the products speak alone by themselves through the package. The boy in the video chooses “those” bottles of beer and not others, the girls has in her hands “that” package of chips and not others: that beer and those chips identifies this two youngs, their way of life and they choose this goods for this, because the packages mirror their personality. We choose “that” baby food because the clear list of ingredients on the package give a sense of protection, serious attention to quality, consideration for our babies’ health. We choose “that” shampoo because the image of a leaf clearly says that the product is a natural one, so natural that is extraordinary suitable for our hair damaged by pollution. The design packaging is a new way of communication, perhaps the most fast and intimate at the same time. It’s the only voice able to withstand the harsh confrontation and clash of hasty and always more distracted race of the consumers “do it yourself”. No advice, no comfort or suggestion of any good salesman, only the harsh rule of communication and design. The package must win the competition that acts silent on the shelves around the world every day, and the snacks move, move, move.

This is my idea: my blog would give a general view on PACKAGE DESIGN in the way to explain why and how it has changed according to new contexts, problems, purposes, buyers’ mind in order to become a very important characters in design and economic discussions. Then, I’ll try to go even further and analyze the package design with  a focus on its main four challenges: protection, conservation, interaction, promotion. In particular, I’ll study examples from the market for beauty and, in the end, as the key of my blog, the world of perfume. In my opinion, this world is the most fascinating field for design to catch the smell of our days, of our friends, of our past treasure,the essence of  vital beauty into a visible and tangible reality. The package for cosmetics, and parfums particularly, will be seen through an aesthetic point of view and an economic one, as, for me, the market for beauty is a rich soil in wich the possibilities of expression, for designers, are almost limitless.

So, this is my project: are you with me?