Design Interview: Dawn Spencer Hurwitz
Dawn Spencer Hurwitz Aromatics Consulting & Design
Dawn Spencer Hurwitz attended art school to become a painter, but soon after completing her studies, her career path took a serendipitous turn into fragrance. She met a perfumer who developed custom fragrance blends for his store, Essense (Boston, MA). Hurwitz worked at Essense as a perfumer and eventually purchased the store with a colleague.
In this role, she began sourcing all of the raw materials and packaging, and also designing new "ready-to-buy" products and their packaging. Hurwitz later moved to Boulder, CO, and opened her own design studio, Essense Studio.
As a newly independent designer, Hurwitz launched DSH New Creations, a ready-to-wear fragrance line created to have the qualities of a custom fragrance. "I always strive to expand the types of products I produce and to somehow incorporate my background in art," Hurwitz says. "Packaging is a great vehicle for expressing in a physical form what a fragrance has to communicate."
For Hurwitz, mastering the art of packaging design includes maintaining her company's bottom line. Thus she is a proponent of using stock packaging from a variety of suppliers. "When I shop for stock packaging, I try for something traditional that will require only a few embellishments to make it my own," Hurwitz says.
Photos courtesy of Aromatics Consulting & Design Passionflower Perfume Poems is the newest fragrance line under the DSH New Creations umbrella. The packaging concept is one of multisensory art, a combination of fragrance, visual art, and poetry. Each fragrance has tucked into its packaging a stream-of-consciousness poem composed of words that express the fragrance concept. For instance, accompanying the Daisy Be Young fragrance is a 12-line "perfume poem," which begins "blue green white frosty silver / sleek shimmering hip fluid."
According to Hurwitz, "A poet uses words, links them together, to create images that are deeply engaging." Similarly, she explains, "[Passionflower Perfume Poems] align aromatic notes into subtle harmonies and drama." The product line is sold at such stores and boutiques as Kirna Zabete, Pink, Emma Gold, E6 Apothecary, and Sephora (select locations).
Packaging for the New Creations line includes sage-green rectangular cartons, clear glass bottles, and square hang tags that are cut by hand and suspended from the bottle's collar by a piece of ribbon. Each product shows the designer's attention to detail, from the heavy, smooth glass bottles to the linen-like feel of the outer cartons.
Although her packaging is made primarily of stock componentry, Hurwitz adds personal touches, like hand-cut embossed seals and hand-applied decorations. The packages are designed for a look that is simple, classic, and complementary to the products they house. "Simplicity is timeless," she says. "Packaging can be minimalist, as long as it tells a story and is interesting to look at."
For more information, contact Aromatics Consulting & Design at 800/551-0701. DSH New Creations fragrances can be found on-line at http://www.dsh-newcreations.com.