Design Interview: Ping Li
Ping Li LiDesign
For designer Ping Li, cosmetic packaging is about more than aesthetics. Her design studio, LiDesign, specializes in developing packages that help beauty-product manufacturers reach their target markets. "Designers are part of the [initial] marketing strategy [for a product]. We recognize and visualize marketing strategies and objectives. We [create] designs that sell," says Li.
With more than 20 years of experience and a portfolio of award-winning projects, Li knows what she's talking about. Her design training began at Hong Kong Technical College and continued at the Art Center College of Design (Pasadena, CA), where she majored in advertising design. Li then attended the Pratt Institute (New York City), where she graduated with a BFA in package design. From 1972 to 1983, Li worked as a cosmetic packaging designer for such companies as Avon, Estée Lauder, and Revlon.
In 1983, Li founded Ping Li Design Studio in Los Angeles. Five years later, when her brother, Chiu Li, graduated from design school, she established LiDesign studio with him and Lin Sakai, a friend. Li manages the Los Angeles branch of LiDesign studio, while her brother and Sakai run the New York office. "My brother's specialty is food and pharmaceutical designs, while I focus on cosmetic packaging," says Li. The studio's client list includes Avon, Bellevoir Beverly Hills, Crabtree & Evelyn, Estée Lauder, Jafra Cosmetics, Neutrogena, and Prescriptives. "LiDesign is versatile," says Li. "We design for upscale and premium brands, as well as for mass-marketed products. Our capabilities to design or redesign products [are enhanced by] our extensive art background and our constant research in Europe and Asia of the most cutting-edge trends."
At left, former packaging for Jafra is minimalistic. At right, LiDesign's version is redesigned for a warmer, more upscale look. One of the strengths of LiDesign is redesigning existing product lines to increase their marketability. While redesigning a package to meet a manufacturer's budget and production constraints can be challenging, Li is able to devise innovative packaging solutions. "We're good not only at designing, but also at solving problems," says Li. "For example, to achieve an upscale look [when we are limited] to using stock containers, we must utilize creative and stunning graphic designs to create a custom look for the package."
In 1990, the studio redesigned the packaging for the Rowena skin-care line. The original packaging comprised various container shapes and sizes that looked old-fashioned, according to Li. To fit the manufacturer's production budget, Li streamlined the packaging using one stock bottle and one stock jar; added cartons as secondary packaging; and designed a shopping bag for the products. "We recommended using only two product shapes because the line was going
to be produced in small quantities," says Li. "To lower the cost, we advised using labels instead of silk screening the logo onto the cartons. We also felt that the cartons would enhance the product's upscale image." The result is powerful in its simplicity, she says.
Similarly, LiDesign was called upon to redesign the packaging for the entire skin-care line of Jafra Cosmetics International, a direct-sales company. The goal was to change the architectural, minimalistic, and scientific look that the packaging was given by The Gillette Company in the 1980s, when it acquired Jafra. "[The design was consistent with] the Gillette image, but not with the basic Jafra philosophy, which is [to be] warm and people-oriented," says Li. When Jafra was sold by Gillette, the new owners called upon LiDesign to create a look that better reflected Jafra's market. The redesigned packaging consists of custom caps and bottles in periwinkle tones, and is decorated using silver hot stamping and silk screening. "The [new packaging] is clean, simple, and friendly, yet upscale," says Li.
LiDesign not only redesigned Jafra's packaging, but also developed a new logo for the company and designed the layout for Jafra's personnel training manual on CD-ROM.
But such redesigns are not the only LiDesign specialty. The studio also offers its expertise in creating first designs for new product launches. For example, the studio designed a bottle with a feminine silhouette and contemporary-looking sculpted vertical lines for Jafra's launch of its Chosen fragrance for women. The packaging conveys the fragrance's sensual, exotic, and romantic feel. "I love [working with] shapes," says Li. "It was challenging to achieve the contour of the bottle, which is narrow [at the top] and wider at the base." The bottle design fulfilled Jafra's request for an upscale-looking addition to its line of fragrance packaging.
In each unique design process, Li carries her belief that packaging is an opportunity for manufacturers to connect with consumers. "A good package design [communicates a product's] unique personality. It stimulates, appeals, and connects to the heart as well as the mind," says Li. The bottom line, she says, is to create irresistible designs that sell.