Package designers are always looking for upcoming trends—in colors, fabrics and patterns—that might inspire a new type of decoration or decorative effect. Other times, trends don’t matter to a brand—and a classic timeless look is more appropriate.

Suppliers have been developing new decorating techniques to give a package a different look.

At SGD Group, Sheherazade Chamlou, executive sales director, North America, says, “We strive to push the limits of decoration by creating new design elements that will evoke new emotions. And we’re continuously developing new techniques and adapting our industrial facilities to meet the market’s ever-changing demands.”

Decotech’s president, Richard Engel, says that digital printing, directly on glass, has really taken off this year. “We introduced this decorating technique last year and we have close to a dozen items already in the marketplace. The response has been fantastic,” says Engel.

Current industry trends include swirls of vibrant color, and patterns on everything—including bulb actuators. Designs inspired by The Great Gatsby era seem to be here to stay. Beauty and fragrance marketers are continuing to use art deco influences, in new ways.
Pantone has been promoting its Fashion Color Report for Spring 2015, but for those planning further ahead, the Color Planner Autumn/Winter 2015/2016 has also been pub lished. The forecast predicts a move toward “confident” colors, with “intense tones and stronger color bursts.” And even black will be tinted with color. (View the Spring 2015 shades on BeautyPackaging.com).

Trendy Effects in Metallics & Metal

Suppliers, who often work with brands to develop their next design concepts long before the packaging hits the market, sometimes get an early glimpse of upcoming color and design trends.

Mallory Wood, global sales executive, Libo Cosmetics, says there is currently a high demand for metallizing, and Libo has been increasing its capacities in this area to meet its customers’ needs. “In-house metallizing is one of the decorating techniques we specialize in, and we have a wide range of color capabilities,” says Wood.

Anna Soden, director of sales and business development, CTL Packaging USA, describes the trends she’s been hearing about, saying, “We’re seeing a lot of requests for hot pink, and metallic effects.”

Teresa Synakowski, director of business development, GM Nameplate, also mentions pink, saying, “Pink on metal is a favorite among cosmetic brands. Then it can be embossed or debossed to create a beautiful 3D masterpiece.”

Synakowski adds, “Most trends have their cycle, but thank goodness the metal look seems to be making a comeback, and it should.” Pointing out metal’s attributes, she adds, “Metal, depending on a chosen color, gives a feel of richness and a look of brilliance. High bright silvers and golds are the normal customer choice when producing metal parts, but we have the ability to custom develop and print any color that a brand would want.

One challenge when working with metal, says Synakowski, is when a brand chooses a transparent color. “Transparent inks on metal will actually change the entire look, and may not be what you expected, or look like your chosen PMS color. Also, depending on what type of metal you choose—soft, hard, mill finished, high bright, or stainless steel— this will also change the way the transparency comes to fruition.”

It’s always a trial and error process with transparent inks, but Synakowski says her customers are always happy with the end result.

Synakowski says she also likes a challenge—like when a brand asks her to come up with something “different.” She says, “We recently developed a proprietary printing process while working on a project with one of our customers—and it’s a very ‘brilliant’ look that shines. We have the ability to selectively choose the parts of the package to decorate with this printing process, for a custom look.”

Another supplier, Mei Shual Group, also says metallics are trending. Marc Desmarais, Mei Shual’s director of innovation, says that makeup colors have been sparkling with lots of metallic effects—so packaging is expected to shine as well.

Desmarais describes a recent project, which involved decorating a black compact with a shiny gold pattern that sparkles like a foil streamer on New Year’s Eve.

“One of our recent technical challenges was to develop a metallic gold top plate with a tonal effect, gradations of gold and pops of silver. We developed a new double-stamping process that allowed us to adhere a clear four-color CMYK heat transfer label, and a double-sided gold foil on the bottom of a clear acrylic lens,” he explains.

The gold foil shines through the clear CMYK transfer label, creating the tonal gold effect. “When viewed under the clear acrylic lens, the glass-like effect of the acrylic magnifies the glossiness of the metallic tones of gold,” says Desmarais.

 One challenge for this design was to make sure it didn’t look flat. “It had to have dimension, but we didn’t have the time or the budget to create any tooling for the plastic. We collaborated very closely with the client’s designer to set up the art files, and ran several proofs to make sure that the final tones of gold were consistent with the client’s vision,” he adds.

Using Color To Convey Different Messages

Brightly colored packages often convey “fun” to entice the consumer to spot the package on a store shelf or use the product more often, while a dark color often conveys elegance, sophistication—or “night” as it did to one brand.

The new skincare line, DNA EGF Renewal chose bright colors that pop for its packaging, and it’s a contrast to its sophisticated formulation. The line was created by Beverly Hills dermatologist and cosmetic surgeon, Dr. Ronald Moy, who says the formulation is the first to combine the two technologies—DNA Repair Enzymes and plant-based Epidermal Growth Factor—which is the ‘EGF’ in the brand’s name.

The brand’s signature product is DNA Regeneration Serum that claims to improve the skin’s natural repair processes to reverse the negative effects of aging, stress, and the environment. It also promotes skin cell restoration, renewal and growth, and combats skin thinning, discoloration, and bruising associated with aged, sun-damaged skin.

Instead of choosing all white to convey a high-tech look, the brand opted for color—lots of it.

“We wanted to keep a scientific aesthetic to the packaging, while creating something vibrant for the shelves. With the pop of bright colors combined with the “test tube” design, we feel we met this objective. Our choice of colors looks lively, fun and appealing like candy,” explains Erin Moy, CEO of DNA EGF Renewal.

The products are packaged in colorful bottles with rounded edges to emulate a test tube shape, and they are dispensed with a pump actuator. The bottles are decorated using a soft touch coating and silk-screened labels.

Kiss the Moon calls itself “the first sleep brand” so it’s appropriately packaged in deep midnight blue bottles, designed by the London-based consultancy, Echo Brand Design. The color was inspired by “night.”  

The brand uses design elements reminiscent of a lunar eclipse. The packaging features circular and crescent references, to further associate the products with nighttime use. The line includes face and bath oils to promote sleep, like Dream, which contains lavender, bergamot, cedar wood and Roman chamomile. The glass bottles have a sprayed matte black finish, and the logo is a decal.

Jo Foster, the brand’s founder, asked Echo to “create something beautiful and fitting for a brand that comes to life at night.” Before starting to create the brand, Foster was a media director at Saatchi & Saatchi, and was inspired by her own need for better sleep.

According to the team at Echo, the brand has a cohesive identity, with which components and secondary packaging work together. The gift packaging is a keepsake box with a magnetic closure. Its base allows it to be used as a stand to display the bottle upright on a shelf.

“Using the inspiration of the nighttime led to the development of the subtle lunar curves that form a distinctive visual communication tool for Kiss the Moon, as the brand expands,” says Gemma Gorringe, senior designer, ECHO. “Working on both the graphic and structural design of the brand enabled us to build in multiple layers of the brand’s character, to create a premium consumer experience.”

The design also features 1930s influences. Echo chose patterns reminiscent of the decor one might find in a 1930s boudoir, which inspired the graphics on the exterior of the boxes, and the pattern featured on the brand’s website.  

“The thick paperboard boxes have been litho printed with a foil applied after lamination to achieve the patterned effect. The boxes are sturdy and have been designed to last, acting as a home for the bottle throughout the entire life of the product. The magnet is applied prior to the boxes being constructed,” explains Jen Nathan, ECHO production director.

More Gatsby Patterns

Nicole “Snooki” Polizzi, who rose to fame on the reality show “The Jersey Shore,” was also inspired to choose a Great Gatsby-inspired design for her fourth fragrance, Snooki in Love.

Both the box and coordinating clutch bag, which is sold with the scent, feature a black and gold art deco pattern. The fragrance bottle is also adorned with a feather that looks like a flapper’s boa.

Snooki in Love launched on HSN this month. Packaging is extremely important to the television shopping network—and executives say that when a fragrance bottle has a colorful look, viewers take notice. Gwen Stefani’s new Harajuku Lovers collection launched on HSN recently as well, and the bottles resemble works of art. (Find out more about these bottles at BeautyPackaging.com)  

Prints, Everywhere

Fragrance and cosmetic packages are being decorated with patterns in unexpected ways. Aptar Beauty & Home has launched a new collection called “Blue” for its line of stock bulb atomizers. They are decorated with designs inspired by textiles, and available in two materials, mesh or polyester. The “Essential Mesh” collection includes gingham, stripes, denim variations and designs in sparkling blues.  

The collection called “A New Take on Polyester” has options that include floral, zebra and night sky patterns.

Coverpla is another supplier that has been working with brands to create designs that feature prints, in unique textures and patterns. “Our latest project replicates snakeskin,” says Gilda Cutri, national sales director, Coverpla USA. “We can create an embossed version of your artwork, or any pattern,” she adds.

Coverpla also offers a technique called precious metal screening that can be used as an alternative to hot stamping. “This decorating method is more cost-effective, and the design will be more durable than a hot-stamped decoration,” explains Cutri.

Solving Decorating Issues with Labels

Labels can sometimes be the solution you need to solve a design or budget issue. Sometimes a simple label design is the ideal look for your brand, when “flashy” isn’t the image you have in mind. Other times, you might be looking for a way to execute a design that includes complex graphics, and a label might be the best way to achieve your design goals.  

Dave Desai, director of sales, Piramal, recently found a solution for one customer that was looking for an economical alternative for creating see-through elements on a frosted bottle. “Normally to achieve this, an acid-resist would be applied to the bottle prior to acid frosting which would then have to be removed. It’s a costly and time consuming process,” says Desai.

Piramal was able to meet this customer’s decorating—and budgetary—needs.  

“Instead of searching for a mechanical solution, we turned to chemistry,” he explains. “Using a spray frost instead of acid-etching and a specially formulated clear ink, we were able to ‘print away’ the frosted surface, with extraordinary results.”

Desai says he worked on another challenging project recently in which he had to wrap a narrow, pressure-sensitive label around a wide cylindrical bottle.
 
“The ends must meet with as little skewing as possible. Our existing wrap-labelers failed miserably, and the brand’s launch date was rapidly approaching,” says Desai. “Our engineers came up with the idea of fitting a label head on one of our more precise screen printing machines. The experiment was successful due to the advanced container handling available to us with the machine,” he explains.

One brand that chooses to use labels, rather than direct printing, is Avishi Organics. Its Baby Balm is a spot-on moisturizer in a twist-up plastic stick package that’s convenient for busy moms.

Since it contains natural ingredients and essential oils that can potentially dissolve uncoated paper labels and even certain inks, Avishi uses a white polypropylene label, due to its waterproof properties.

A New Solution: The Gel Label

Libo Cosmetics is promoting one of its newest specialty decorating techniques—the gel label. Tarte Be MATTEnificent compact is decorated using this technique.

“The customer submits artwork and the file is digitally printed on the label. The label itself has a slight cushion feel and is raised to give the compact a more luxurious finish. The possibilities are unlimited as to what the customer can have printed,” explains Libo Cosmetics’  Wood.

Heat transfer labels are also becoming increasingly popular, according to Wood. “They allow for a more intricate, detailed and colorful design,” she explains. Tarte uses this type of decoration on other compacts.

When a Decoration Isn’t As Simple As It Looks

Often, an idea a designer envisions is more difficult than it looks, when it comes to executing it on a production line.
 
Before introducing its digital printing process, directly on glass, to the fragrance market, Decotech’s team spent years of research mastering the issues of adhesion and product resistance for digital decoration on glass. “Like many of our other technologies, we had to develop a proprietary process and materials to meet the toughest industry standards, and we are proud to say we have never had a performance issue with any of our digital decoration,” Engel explains.

Spray masking has been another one of Decotech’s increasingly popular decorating techniques—and, the company has been asked to use this technique on quite a few extremely challenging projects. “There is more art than science to spray masking. This past year, we were asked to mask and spray only the inset and contoured shoulder of a curved glass bottle, leaving the rest of the bottle clear,” Engel explains.   

Another supplier, CTL, credits its injection molded plastic tube technology, and its ability to print a decoration flat, with giving its customers flexibility to be more creative when coming up with a design to convey a brand’s identity. “The decorating options are endless with four color process printing, metallic (both cold and hot foil), combination varnish effects—as well as the IML process. We are able to achieve 360 degree graphics,” Soden says.


Creamy White, Intense Black



Sometimes the simpler a decoration is, the more challenges it can present. These fragrance brands chose timeless classic hues, but the elegant decoration doesn’t look simple.

The fragrance Narciso by Narciso Rodriquez, launched by BPI-Shiseido, features an opaque “stone white” decoration that is applied to the cube-shaped bottle’s inner walls. The finish looks elegant, and almost “creamy.”

The bottle is produced and decorated by SGD. The bottle’s edges had to be “perfectly drawn” the supplier says.

“We developed and mastered this exclusive technique over the last four years,” says SGD’s Chamlou. She explains, “We used our color coating technology to decorate the inside of the bottle, which enhances the glass distribution, and creates an optical illusion so it seems as if the juice is suspended inside the bottle.”

This patented process allows SGD to color the inside of a bottle with multiple tints, from crystal to opaque, as well as pastels and darker shades. There are also no compatibility issues between the decoration and the fragrance.

The specific shade of white that was chosen matches a stone Rodriguez found on the shore in Cypress, according to the brand. The color represents the softness of the juice, which contains white gardenia, rose, musk, vetiver, black cedar and white cedar.  

The niche brand, By Kilian, by Kilian Hennessey, went for its signature black look, but this time it is even more intense. The brand recently launched the “K” collection, which includes four fragrances: Killing Me Slowly, Dangerously in Love, Criminal of Love and Kisses Don’t Lie.

The scents are housed in egg-shaped bottles, which are produced by Pochet du Courval and decorated by Pochet Group’s Solev.

Specifically, the bottle is modeled after Easter eggs made by the House of Faberge from 1885 to 1917. The iconic Faberge eggs are a symbol of love in Russian culture, and the special edition packaging is called the Art of Love bottle. It’s only sold in Russia, currently.

Creating the bottle took 18 months of research and development, and one bottle takes 50 hours of labor to produce, before it’s ready to be filled, according to the brand.

In order for the decoration to be possible, Pochet du Courval developed a new glass-making technique to ensure a perfectly smooth surface. The supplier had to utilize a flame-polishing process, despite the egg’s unstable shape.

Solev created the bottle’s intense black decoration by fully black metallizing and lacquering the glass. Next, a laser cutting technique is used to create transparent crescent shaped windows that look illuminated.  

The glamorous bottle stands upside down on a clear pedestal, adorned with the brands’ signature black tassel. It’s packaged in a box that has a secret compartment, filled with what the brand calls a ‘love accessory.’ Here’s a hint: It celebrates the collection’s ‘spirit of submission.’ Another hint: The box is wrapped in a sleeve embossed with an image of bondage rope.

Suppliers Shine

Often a brand may not realize how difficult a decoration is to achieve, but the suppliers we have spoken to all love a challenge.

“Our customers usually don’t realize how difficult a request is, or the engineering a job requires. We often develop new strategies and solutions for specific projects,” says Engel.

The fragrance shown above, which shows Decotech’s spray masking technique on only the bottle’s shoulders, was a challenge that Engel says, “has opened up our masking repertoire.” Proud of his team’s accomplishments, Engel adds: “To this day, whenever we show this item to another decorator or someone who understands masking, they usually ask, ‘How on earth did you guys do this?’ ”