Packaging plays a pivotal role in shaping how consumers perceive brands and their values – particularly in an era where sustainability is front and centre. But if new, responsible materials look similar to their unsustainable predecessors, how do we ensure their environmental value is recognised?
Material design expert Chris Lefteri explores how designers can communicate sustainability through colour, materials, and finishes (CMF) – and why packaging professionals should reconsider the aesthetics of plastic. His insights, drawn from product, automotive and electronics industries, resonate just as strongly in packaging, where design choices must now do more than contain and protect – they must tell a sustainability story too.
Ed's Note: This is an edited version of the original article, which can be found on the K website here.
What happens when we design with sustainable materials so successfully that no one notices the change? If a bio-based or recycled plastic looks and feels identical to virgin plastic, we risk losing the opportunity to tell the sustainability story. Designers are being challenged not only to make environmentally sound material choices – but to make those choices visible, meaningful and desirable.
We’ve accepted imperfections in materials like wood or metal as signs of authenticity. Why not plastic too? Several brands are now doing just that – bringing surface irregularities to the fore instead of hiding them.
The rise of ‘honest’ plastic
Microsoft’s Xbox Remix Controller and Steelcase’s Perch stool are pioneering examples of making recycled content visible. Flow lines, swirls, and colour inconsistencies aren’t treated as defects but as part of a new design language – celebrating the journey of material recovery.
In the automotive world, Volvo’s EX30 and Dacia’s interiors developed with LyondellBasell demonstrate how speckled textures and visible material histories can become a feature of premium design, not a flaw. These new aesthetics are setting a precedent: luxury doesn’t have to mean perfection.
Redefining beauty and value
High-end finishes, especially metallics, remain hard to replace in consumer perception. But forward-thinking companies like Panasonic are showing how novel materials – like Nagori, made from mineral byproducts – can redefine what premium looks like. Similarly, unidirectional PP fibres offer recyclability with a refined, linear texture that can rival traditional luxury materials.
Still, the dominance of virgin plastic – perfect, repeatable, consistent – remains a powerful influence. Designers and manufacturers are being asked to shift not just processes but mindsets.
Evolving the narrative
Speckles and marbling are just the beginning. Can we develop aesthetic cues that reflect sustainability in more consistent ways – refined particles, deliberate patterns – that appeal to a broader audience while retaining their material honesty?
Ultimately, the challenge is to make sustainable products not just acceptable but aspirational. CMF design must tap into the same emotional pull that has historically driven consumer choices, now anchored in environmental value.
Collaboration is key
Designers alone can’t change perceptions. We need collaboration between industrial designers, CMF experts, material scientists and plastics producers to redefine the look of responsible design.
That’s the aim of the Materials Design Tours at K 2025: to highlight real-world, innovative examples of sustainable plastics and finishes, and inspire professionals across industries – including packaging – to rethink how materials tell stories.
K 2025: MATERIAL DESIGN TOURS – BOOK YOUR PLACE
Explore cutting-edge sustainable plastic innovations in guided sessions led by Chris Lefteri.
Saturday & Sunday, 11–12 October | 10:30 a.m. | ⏱️ Duration: 1.5 hours
Free to attend, limited places.
Register here
About the author: Chris Lefteri is an internationally recognised authority in the field of materials and their application in design. The work of his studio and his publications have contributed significantly to fundamentally changing the way designers and the materials industry view materials. Chris Lefteri Design is based in London and Seoul and works with numerous Fortune 100 companies. The studio is considered one of the world's leading studios in the field of materials and CMF (colour, material, finish). Chris Lefteri studied industrial design under Professor Daniel Weil at the renowned Royal College of Art in London.
