Designer Interview: Jane Schub
Jane Schub Jules & Jane
By Lori Bryan, EditorThere is a comforting simplicity in the design of Jules & Jane (New York City) organic skin-care products. Plastic easy-to-squeeze bottles with subtly squared edges and square-shaped red labels attract shoppers. The overall look is no-fuss.
Just as no-frills as the packages is their designer, Jane Schub.
"We've never considered [Jules & Jane] a 'fashion' product," says Schub of her company's position. "Serious research and science are behind enhancing well-being and being truly holistic." Emphasizing what is in the packages has worked in the company's favor, says Schub. "It has enabled us to use inexpensive packaging components to convey the image and theme of the line."
So, Schub and business partner Julius Eulberg have kept packaging costs down without skimping on message. "I'm a firm believer that good design has nothing to do with the dollars that are spent," Schub says. "It's all about concepts."
Schub's concept-oriented approach developed out of her work as an artist. Some years before starting Jules & Jane, Schub graduated from the Rhode Island School of Design (Providence). She embarked on a career as an illustrator, painting large works of fashion and beauty that were commissioned by such stores as Bergdorf Goodman and Cartier. Her designs have been exhibited at the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum (New York City) and seen in print worldwide.
Schub will soon launch Skindom, products containing organically farmed ingredients, in packaging she describes as modern and for the mass market. With such an impressive curriculum vitae, one might wonder why the artist chose entrepreneurship as well, cofounding Bubbes Best, a niche baby-skin-care line, in 1998. Perhaps the best explanation is what Schub calls the most challenging aspect of her job as a packaging designer: "I can't stop coming up with ideas."
And with Schub's unrelenting ideas have come new ventures, Jules & Jane being the latest. The line, which is in 40 doors worldwide, is still growing. A spray for sustaining positive energy, called Aura Cleanse, is the most recent addition.
Upcoming for Jules & Jane is a complete line of spa products. The line extension will feature a logo with the same square shape that Jules & Jane products are known for, but in a different color, maximizing brand identity while differentiating the two lines on the shelf.
Also keeping Schub busy is a new company, Skindom, that "will provide the same quality and care as the Jules & Jane line at an affordable price," she says. The skin-care products will put the spotlight on organically farmed ingredients. "We are using botanicals that are highly efficient and very easy to use," says Schub. The packaging for Skindom will look different from that of sister-company Jules & Jane. "The design will be modern, the price point affordable (from $6 to $12) for the mass-market consumer," Schub says.
For Schub, always having a new design project means having fun. "I enjoy the process," she says, "working with a screener, being compulsive about color." But even the package designer with never-ending ideas knows when it's time to put a project to bed. "Once the project is completed, you get to see your ideas in 3-D on the shelf. You say to yourself, 'that really looks great, but maybe I should have used a brown-black instead of a red-black on the trademark symbol.' That's when you know it's time to stop and move on."