PLAIN PACKAGING
Opening up to “Anti-Design” Rebecca Goodacre, talks to Pete Collard, curator at the Design Museum about the Australian cigarette packaging's inclusion in their award nominations
With the New Zealand Government recently opting to follow Australia into enforcing plain packaged cigarettes, the controversy surrounding the removal of branding continues to bubble on in the packaging industry.
ut whilst major brands and their supporters discuss concern over the implications of these changes, from the impact on personal choice, to the logistics of stacking shelves of practically identical products, the
B
repackaged goods have sent out ripples in the design world.
AN UNREMARKABLE DESIGN
The Australian plain
packaging has proven that it is not quite so plain after all, having been nominated for the Design Museum Design of the Year award. The awards are a global competition celebrating some of the most innovative and conceptual designs of the last 12 months, including the Olympic Cauldron and London’s The Shard.
And in amongst these
remarkable designs is that of the Australian cigarette packet, commissioned by the Australian Government with the sole intention of being wholly unremarkable.
“ANTI-DESIGN”
Peter Collard, Curator of Designs of the Year 2013 explains that the cigarette packaging goes beyond just simple design; they are in essence “anti-design”. He explains, “The cigarette packets are an example of just what design can do, and how it can alter our habits.”
The packaging was created out of market research to discover what consumers find unattractive, Collard goes on to
say “The olive green colouring used, is rarely found in packaging. It doesn’t have great visibility and is very jarring for consumers. Colours have a great impact on consumers. Take Facebook blue for instance, it’s iconic, immediately familiar. They needed to do away with this, and wanted to make it as unglamorous as possible.” Fundamentally, the packaging was created to be ugly; the anti- thesis of what a consumer would wish to aspire to. As Collard explains, “Not everything displayed in a design museum should be beautiful or ‘good’, the point is to open a discussion about the way everyday objects are made, the messages they send out and how we react to them.”
He continues, “The cigarette packaging is unique within Design of the Year. It really challenges design, and ideas of what design is. It will be incredibly interesting to see in two years time how the public have reacted to it.”
“the packaging was created to be ugly; the anti-thesis of what a consumer would wish to aspire to”
A LASTING LEGACY The Design Museum Designs
of Year are chosen for their relevance to modern day living, particularly those which will create the largest impact, leaving the biggest legacy. And it is in its potential for legacy that this “plain” packaging has found its way into the nominations. Whilst for many brands, the legacy of their design is to create something iconic that is forever familiar, evoking the aspirations of consumers.
PackagingGazette.co.uk | Packaging Gazette | 21
The Australian Government wanted their brand to fade into the background, be unappealing, leaving the product forgotten and unwanted. An objective that in the end had as many complexities in its design as some of the most loved brands. It is only with time that the true legacy of the cigarette packets will be known, however anecdotally Collard tells of increasing numbers of
Australians purchasing cigarette cases, removing the packaging entirely. A trend, which if holds true, only adds another dimension to the impact that uniformity in cigarette packaging will have.
Designs of the Year 2013 Exhibition runs from March 20 to 7 July 2013 at the Design Museum, located at Shad Thames, London, SE1 2YD. For further information please visit
www.designmuseum.org
Pete Collard has worked for a number of museums and institutions in the UK and abroad, including most recently the British Council. He is now in his second spell at the Design Museum having previously worked on Terence Conran: The Way We Live Now and Designers in Residence in 2011.
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