Sydney-based packaging design agency Depot, has been widely recognised for its By Beth Collagen Supplement packaging, demonstrating the merits of blending sustainability with luxury.
Sydney-based packaging design agency Depot has won two gold awards this year, and is shortlisted for another, for its By Beth collagen supplement packaging.
Gold winner of the A’Design Award 2022 (Packaging category), the Indigo Design Award, and shortlisted for the Pentawards, the By Beth Collagen Supplement packaging blends luxury with sustainability, which Depot director Angela Spindler says was exactly the aim of the commission.
“The luxury category, particularly the beauty sector, has been subject to much criticism for its excessive use of packaging, plastic and general extraneous packaging waste. It is a category where customers expect luxury and sustainability to dovetail – a harmonious coexistence where sustainability supports the luxury positioning,” says Spindler.
The directive for the brief to Depot was to create a visual identity system and packaging design, including a bespoke vessel for this luxury atelier – redefining the edible beauty space. The brand strategy and philosophy had to be applied to all assets, from packaging and collateral designs to brand guidelines and internal brand decks allowing everyone concerned with the brand to understand and champion the spirit of it.
“We designed a core logo and monogram for the brand to work across a vast array of touch points, from product packaging through to digital applications. For this luxury brand, simplicity, sustainability and social responsibility sit as key strategic pillars and therefore drove all packaging decisions.
“With this in mind, we worked in collaboration with industrial design house Vert Design, to create a bespoke form that fulfilled the design brief of luxurious and sustainable,” she explains, highlighting that simplicity is reflected in the combination of two natural materials, glass and wood, while sustainability is achieved through both material usage and reuse of the
vessel – employing a refill system.
“Refills are available in pouch form. Luxury is secured through an elegant, blended conical form with flowing surfaces influencing perception and desirability. With all of our projects we see the packaging as the object driving our visceral feelings,” she says, pointing out that the bespoke vessel (packaged in a rigid, lidded box and shipped in a coreflute shipper) are the very things that turn this collagen product into a brand of “value and cachet”.
Spindler explains that the material selection for all packaging was used to influence the consumer’s perception from the initial impression to a later considered appraisal.
“Where possible all materials were selected based on their environmental credentials, ranging from the use of post-consumer waste and FSC papers to soy-based inks. A simple 14-day travel pack was designed using a bamboo pulp box with a simple colour-coded sleeve to differentiate variants. The primary packaging is a rigid box with bespoke inserts and colour coded for the variants using a sticker system, the same system used across the pouches.
Spindler explains that Fedrigoni Arena (uncoated) was used for the majority of the project. It is a FSC stock, which she describes as “superb, with a beautiful finish, very flat surface and it holds solid colour really well,” confirming that the rigid box walls are made from cardboard, derived from post-consumer waste.
“As the range uses Australian botanicals, we chose to apply this element in a subtle way, across tissue paper and on the inside lining of the shipper. The key monogram features across all elements, either laser- etched/embossed/debossed or with a spot UV varnish. Its packaging with a colour palette of dark green and light pastel hues, using high quality materials, structures and subtle print finishes, created a tangible sense of both luxury and prestige.
“As sustainability is now a requisite for packaging, we embed our three core principals in to our design process, to ensure we achieve packaging that has positive sustainable outcomes,” says Spindler.
The By Beth Collagen Supplement refill pouches, lidded box, stickers, labels, core flute shipper, as well as the materials for the 14-day travel pack, were printed to Australian and European standards, by Colophon Print Management in China.
Agency of packaging thinkers and innovators
Spindler, an award-winning designer, has been in the design business for three decades. She established Depot in 2002, which now operates in the Middle East, US, China and India, as well as here in Australia.
With a focus on food, drinks, fragrance, beauty and wellness and lifestyle, the multiple award-winning agency is made up of packaging thinkers, creators and innovators.
Depot works on a diverse range of projects with tailored teams hand picked by Spindler for specific projects, and talented collaborators of the highest calibre.
This article was first published in the September-October 2022 print issue of PKN Packaging News, p20.
