Wednesday, January 12, 2011

Less Is More: In Your Pantry

Sarah's post earlier this week on the Starbucks redesign got me thinking: when is less more, and when is less just less? The folks at Antrepo, a design consultancy with a minimal approach, put that subject to the test with a recent project. Antrepo took ten existing package designs and reduced them in stages down to the bare essentials. On some products, the result is a cleaner, and has a more expensive look than the original. For example, I would definitely spend forty cents more on the new Schweppes bottle (just think of the mark-up on an Izze). On others, I can't help but feel they are stripped down to the point that actually begin to look cheap, like a bargain brand (Nutella). While only a hypothetical, it raises some interesting questions about our supermarkets' visual clutter, and how product designers may be able to cut through the noise with a cleaner, more focused design— if done well.


Of course, you could always go this route, and relabel everything with the DHARMA brand. It's definitely cleaner (and no, I am not going to stop blogging about LOST just because the show has ended). ••••

6 comments:

Jeff said...

I think the minimal designs show a confidence in quality. I wonder if all of these deserve it...

Sarah Martin said...

You know I vote for Dharma everything.

Meghan B said...

Dharma Nutella

Robert said...

honestly, i love the minimal nutella design. i could certainly see myself picking out the delicious spread from shards of glass labeled with that logo.

Clipping Design said...

Lovely minimal designs. Really nice. Thanks for sharing.... :)
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B-Brand Design said...

Thanks for sharing.Packaging is the science, art and technology of enclosing or protecting products for distribution, storage, sale, and use. Packaging also refers to the process of design, evaluation, and production of packages. Packaging design, include text, color, pattern, and other design elements into a visual image.
Brand Design