Dutch Packaging Design

The characteristic brown beer bottle will turn just as green as the bottles that Heineken sells worldwide. The Brown bottle is a relic of Dutch appointments made decades ago to redeem deposit-bottles. Brown glass is recycled by most Dutch brewers, so it doesn’t matter which Brewer is taking in a bottle. Green glass is much less established. First, the green bottle was intended as an export bottle, but over the years it has become the color of the Heineken brand. The exchange operation began twenty years ago. In 1992 the Red cap disappeared, six years afterwards the yellow crates turned green and since 2000 all Lightboxes are green as well.

After a successful redesign of Look-O-Look’s Family Bags, Flowpacks and Toppermix, the redesign and packaging for the international Mix Bags of Look-O-Look is done by Stepfive Communication & Design too. The Dutch candy producer with “The most delicious candies in one bag” wanted a fun and diverting bag with small flowpacks in it, appealing to all family members, young and old. These Mix Bags differ from the other Look-O-Look bags by having small and handy portion packs in each mix bag. Each different bag has its own colour coding, visuals of aforementioned small portion packs/flowpacks (drawn in realistic style) and a large window for optimal visibility of the delicious candies.

This years Dutch Design Week will take place from the 20th until the 28th of October. This eleventh edition offers a unique glimpse into the future of design thanks to the endless creativity of hundreds of renowned designers and young talents from The Netherlands.
Over 1,500 designers display their work ranging from graphic design, industrial design, packaging design, spatial design, textiles, fashion, architecture, sustainable responsible business design and design management & trends. There are 85 different locations housing more than 300 events. Besides exhibitions, there are numerous lectures, workshops, fashion shows and seminars.

This year 200,000 visitors are expected to visit the Dutch Design Week.

Dutch Designweek 2012, Eindhoven – The Netherlands

In addition to this restyling, a new organic cream yoghurt (with fruits) packaging design was created for Dutch company Weerribben Zuivel. Fresh and natural visuals on the packaging are showing us the origin of this organic cream yoghurt: National Park ‘De Weerribben’ in The Netherlands. These visuals and the coloured shopping list on top derives from the complete restyling by Stepfive of all the other Weerribben products and herewith makes it into a coherent and appetizing product range. Also to distinguish the cream yoghurts from the other yoghurts, we’ve added visuals of the fruits used in the yoghurt.

Ever thought about just how persuasive packaging can be? Supermarkets use carefully designed packaging to influence customers’ perceptions of their products. But does it work? It was tested with chocolate chip cookies on two groups of people, one group tasted and rated the cookies without seeing any of the packaging, while the other group did the same thing while the packets were shown beforehand. Read about the results here.
Packaging is one way of making a product get your attention. But there’s more. Every element of the in-store environment is carefully deliberated over; from the general layout to the position of products on the shelf and even the smell and sound.
Read more about psychological tactic in stores here.

Piece of cake for the urban grillmeisters behind their BBQ’s these days with the new and delicious Snack Skewers (Snack Spiesjes) from Dutch company Zwanenberg Food Group. Stepfive created the labels for this new product range. Each different taste variety has its own colour setting and the labels are placed at the top in order to have a good spot on the tasteful skewers.

Already back in 2007, Anke Weiss, a Dutch modern designer who uses recycled materials, has designed a series of beautiful lights made from recycled food and drink packaging. Weiss takes – for instance – juice cartons that have been emptied of their contents and pokes holes in them, through which light will shine after the piece is completed. Recycling to the max that is.
More on this project and Anke Weiss’ work here, here and here.

A compilation of yearly design awards, this book features the best in communication and packaging design from around the world. The iF communication design awards have been conferred since 2004 by a panel of design experts from across the world. Showcased in this volume are the most outstanding examples of communication and packaging design. This yearbook presents trendsetting achievement in advertising, media, campaigns, packaging, and websites.

Read more here, or buy here.

Stepfive develops new brands and concepts for the foodbranche, beverages and luxurious products (i.e. cosmetics) on a daily basis. We analyze various markets in search of opportunities commissioned by our clients, but also on our own initiative.  This perfume “Dutch Beauty” is a fine example of said initiative and is developed to spread the wonderful sent of Dutch tulips all around the world. The shape of the bottle is based on (obviously) a tulip, the top of the bottle can be removed and the perfume can be applied by using the dispenser. The bottle is made of glass except for the top which is made of glossy plastic. Are you interested in this concept? Please contact us www.stepfive.nl

On January 1st, 2013, taxes on packaging in The Netherlands will possibly be abolished. Owing to an agreement between Dutch State Secretary Joop Atsma (Infrastructure and Environment) and the business world, manufacturers, importers and sellers of packaged products will be responsible for the costs of collection and recycling of plastic packaging over the next ten years.

Read the complete article (in Dutch).