Until recently, direct bottle printing was really only an option for glass bottles. But that’s changing. Today, there are a number of options for direct printing bottles, both glass and plastic. Yet another step forward in sustainable packaging design techniques.
Read more on the next wave of bottle and container decorating here.
At Dutch website Groene Offerte you’ll find loads of interesting packaging design related articles, opinions and other stuff (all in Dutch). Especially the serie ‘Food for Thought’ gives entertaining and remarkable examples of packaging design in all its aspects, good or bad.
Groene Offerte is established for the complete design industry. The site is set up to grow: more and more contacts, knowledge and new insights. In this way Groene Offerte wants to help and encourage the design industry with their key role of this industry in the sustainable development of society and economy.
Food for Thought at Groene Offerte (all in Dutch).
”The primary role of packaging is protection, whether that be primary packaging to reduce oxidation, moisture change or insect/microbial access or transportation packaging to reduce crushing or other damage in distribution. It is more than coincidental that packaging usage per person is higher in the developed world and food availability is much greater. The benefits of (diverse) packaging are obvious to us but less so in many developing countries. Both use and quality of packaging is important to reduce food loss and impact sales.”
Read more on packaging design and food loss at Packaging Digest.
According to Unilever’s top manager in Europe Jan Zijderveld, ”Poverty is returning to Europe”. Unilever, best known for popular brands like Knorr instant soups, Ben & Jerry’s ice cream, Lipton teas and many more, will cut package sizes due to the Euro crisis and still earn decent money. ”We know how to do it, but in the European boom years prior to the crisis we forgot.”
Read more in The International Spiegel.
An entertaining and yet educative app for the iPhone and iPad is launched by ‘Plastics Make it Possible‘. The name? Bin It! A fun and addictive new game that challenges you to recycle your packaging and other stuff in a fun way! Bin It is a free game. Download it in the app store.
Ryan Partnership Chicago, a leading expert in marketing campaigns for emerging and established consumer brands, did a huge research project on health and eco-consumers. One conclusion: consumers prefer a single green score on packs.
”We know that consumer commitment to earth-friendly products is increasing,” says Christine Nardi Diette, president of Ryan Partnership Chicago. ”But all of the green messaging is creating more confusion than confidence. Consumers are challenging manufacturers and retailers to be clear about their commitment to sustainability.”
More? Check: www.onegreenscore.com
Len Ostroff, CEO of Informous, a vertical content marketing search engine for the packaging and plastics industries, pleads for QR codes on packaging:
”If including social media is the packaging trend of today, QR codes are the trend of tomorrow.”
More on smart packaging design and QR codes here, here and here.
As far as our crystal ball can tell us, we present you with what generally is considered as the ‘top five most promising trends in packaging’. We look forward to the day we can look back on this and see what more or less ‘happened’, and what turned out to be total BS. Here we go:
1. Sustainability – reduced packaging material; reusable and refillable packaging; and lighter-weight and biodegradable plastics. The latter reduces transportation costs and the overall carbon footprint.
2. Decorating – “Retro” and “vintage” packaging remains a top decorating trend in 2011. Also popular is packaging with simple, minimalist decorating.
3. Electronic-Enabled Packaging – we will keep on integrating the use of our mobile technology (smart-phones) in our package designs. QR codes will appear more often.
4. Packaging is Shrinking – Packaging is getting smaller because prices of certain materials are increasing. So we shrink because consumers seem to notice price increases more readily than they notice package reduction or weight loss.
5. Made in … – when your offset is mostly situated in the country where you produce, a ‘made in …’ will likely to be seen as an added bonus. It tells that there were little transportation costs involved (sustainability), and makes you think the product suits you better than it’s cousins from the other side of the continent, world, galaxy.
For what it’s worth …
Excellent Packaging design and social responsibility can go hand in hand. A good exemple is ‘No House Wine’, a new wine-label that uses it’s profits to build houses for so called kid-parents (older brothers and sisters who take care of their younger ones) of HIV-contaminated families. It prevents kids from getting homeless after their parents died of AIDS.
The international awarded design (New York Festivals (silver), Art Directors Club Nederland (zilveren lamp), Epica (silver) was designed by Edwin Vollebergh. It delicately cites the subject (houses and moving): an apparently handwritten signing on the front and a label made of packaging-tape on the back.
More on ‘No House’ Wine here.
”Global standards on packaging and the environment have gained conclusive momentum with the acceptance of the draft international standard (DIS) texts this week, say industry experts. The new ISO-standards will address the optimization of packaging to minimise its environmental impact, the responsible use of heavy metals and other hazardous substances, the possible reuse of packages and the different modes of recycling (material, energy or composting). The new ISO world standards will most likely be available for use by industry, retail and any other interested organisation by the end of 2012.”
More on the new ISO-standards here and here (pdf).
