Looking forward to a more restrained and, yes, ultimately more elegant esthetic in package design
February 19th, 2006You could apply this lesson to any packaged product today from potato chips to Kleenex to cough syrup but let’s just take the Coke can as an example, even though, you really shouldn’t be drinking Coke.
Seriously.
It’s terrible for you.
But, that’s OK ‘cause we’re only concerned with the package here and here is what a modern-day Coke can looks like:
Look closer.
Notice the rendered beads of water, the superfluous yellow stripe, the several shades of red, the inexplicable halftone dots?
Why so much stuff? Why do graphic designers feel the need to pile so many doohickeys into their designs. It’s embarrassing. I hope it’s the higher-ups that are making them do it and not that they actually like this crap.
Maybe it’s because their Bauhaus-trained teachers beat it into them, but graphic designers from a generation or two ago were terrific. Look at the Coke can you would have been drinking from back then:
Pretty slick, right?
Makes you want to drink a Coke (you shouldn’t!)
What about this one.
Here it is more beat-up, but in a regular-sized can.
Sure there are some things out there with really great design; I’ve seen it. But usually it’s the kind of small-scale stuff that you’d find in a Williamsburg boutique, nothing as ubiquitous as Coke.
One glimmer of hope is the newly released Tab Energy.
I’m sure what’s inside the can is disgusting (I haven’t tried it yet, even though I had to buy a fucking four-pack just to take this goddamned picture). But the can looks great. Tab has always had that really cool dark pink color and that ball-and-stick grid is a nice choice. So good going, Tab.
This has been a strange post.
February 20th, 2006 at 11:55 am
I, for real, love this post.
Yes, Eliza, I read it and understand it.
February 20th, 2006 at 7:30 pm
I’m surprised you didn’t show the original glass coke bottle in this post, since it’s held up as the pinnacle of commercial/packaging design aesthetics… the sensual curves mirroring the shape of a cola nut.
The hyper-designed cans came out when I was in high school and I remember thinking… there’s a lot going on with this can. Look at a late 80s can by contrast — the look is extremely similar… just with less computer aided gee gaws all over it.
February 20th, 2006 at 8:13 pm
this is the can I remember right after the New Coke fiasco and right before the “silver stripe and geegaws” period from the 80s:
http://www.emory.edu/BUSINESS/images/coke_can.GIF
The bottle is great but doesn’t have a graphic design element so I didn’t want to use it as a foil.
February 20th, 2006 at 8:40 pm
Also, why in the hell to they continue to keep up this “Classic” conceit? That battle is over, Coke people!
(but, again, this isn’t about Coke, but package design in general; we could be talking about Joy Dishwashing Liquid—same thing.)
February 20th, 2006 at 9:02 pm
How else can they prove that Coke is the best? How cheap would it look to only print one/two colors? It’s the top cola on Earth. Hell, they can even print an extra color for just one thin stripe. Isn’t that restraint? If I was going to print another color, there would be some yellow-gold stars and shit all over it. These are clearly people that know restraint. Mitch even told me he got a “Coca-Cola-can-sized design-boner” when he first recognized the genius in it. This is a direct quote.
February 20th, 2006 at 9:12 pm
Mark, are you hopped-up on crystal meth?
February 20th, 2006 at 9:37 pm
Isn’t a man allowed a little sarcasm without such accusations? Sheesh!
February 21st, 2006 at 1:58 am
Have you seen the can design for Crystal Meth?
February 24th, 2006 at 4:28 pm
A little while ago I saw a newish commercial for Diet Dr. Pepper and I got all excited because I thought the can looked so great. (I kept pestering Dale, asking-did you see that can? Isn’t that a nice can?) It was just white with darkish-red type. It looked so simple and elegant. However, I had not yet seen the can in person. Just now I went searching for a photo of it to e-mail you. Unfortunately, when you look at it closely, it has little silver sparkly things around the edges, and the type has a silver shadow. Oh well.
When I used to have to go to London for work I loved walking through grocery stores and pharmacies just soaking up the superior design.
You would most likely not be aware of this, but Kotex has recently redesigned their packaging. http://www.girlspace.com/products/ultrathinpads.asp?h=u&p=
It used to be that every variety of feminine product looked the same on the shelves and it was hard to tell them apart. But this packaging really stands out and is much less fussy. Plus, the individual wrapping on their pads has a very pretty, very simple pattern of floral silhouettes. It’s like nice wallpaper. And I am not ashamed to say so.
February 24th, 2006 at 4:34 pm
Oh Mitch, I see I’ve left an n-dash in there. Sorry if I’ve offended your typsetty sensibilities…
February 24th, 2006 at 4:39 pm
Thanks for the post, Christina. So things are looking up, design-wise in the U.S.
Maybe it’s my male skittishness around all things mentrual, but the Kotex red dot thing creeps me.
February 26th, 2006 at 7:13 pm
The flowers on the kotex package are “bleeding hearts.”
gross.
March 8th, 2006 at 1:00 am
the tab is still in your fridge, isn’t it?
March 8th, 2006 at 1:02 am
One thing that always cheers me up is going to little bodegas and looking at the stuff behind the guy behind the counter. Next time you’re in such a store, look back there. You’ll see hair tonics, colognes, health aids, and other lovely products that look like they were delivered earlier that morning by a man in a covered wagon. So it’s retro cool, but not because these products decided to switch back to some old-timey look after a hideous interim period, but better yet because they stuck it out since 1854.