Applications: Growing Goldie
Girlish style combined with graffiti art adds up to a look as good as gold.
By Marie Redding, Senior EditorDineh Mohajer founded the successful Hard Candy brand in 1995. Upon eventually selling the brand to LVMH Moet Hennessey Louis Vuitton, she met Jeanne Chavez. Working together, they created the new cosmetics brand Goldie, which is mainly sold at Bath and Body Works stores. Mohajer and Chavez rely heavily on package design to attract customer attention and to convey the brand’s message.
One of Goldie’s first products, launched last spring, is nail polish in an hourglass-shaped bottle. It has a tulip-shaped, scalloped-edge cap and a pretty bow around its middle. Its design is just as memorable and creative as Hard Candy’s iconic nail polish bottles, which are sold with a plastic ring around the caps. “The Goldie girl is similar to the Hard Candy customer,” says Chavez. “She’s the girl who’s ahead of it all and who is always searching for the latest and greatest products.”
Goldie’s first collection consisted mostly of white packages, such as very slim and modern-shaped compacts. Goldie Face is a sleek, square kit inspired by the look of an iPod. The packages are decorated using bright pinks and green, adding a punk-style design element.
“Preppy combined with punk reflects our own personal style,” explains Chavez. Mohajer even handwrote the list of ingredients on the packages herself, to get the copy exactly the way she wanted it to look.
“Our packaging must always reflect a merging of our ideas and be exceptional in terms of function and aesthetics,” says Chavez.
This fall, Goldie is launching mini lip glosses and mini nail polishes, which are all designed to fit easily in even the smallest purse or pocket. World Wide Packaging is one supplier that has been working with the brand. “Whenever we see something new and innovative, we know Goldie would be interested in it. The entire brand is designed around innovative packaging,” says Kimyon Holmes, World Wide Packaging’s West Coast sales director. Mohajer and Chavez plan on designing and owning their own custom molds for future packages. Four of the new packages launching this fall were custom designed by Mohajer and Chavez.
“Our packages have to be streamlined but also so cute that you’d want to collect them,” Chavez explains. Even the cartons are meant to be kept, not thrown away. The carton containing mini gloss features a graffiti-inspired design. Last spring, Kim Petty, daughter of singer Tom Petty, created illustrations that were printed in black on the white cartons. In the future, the brand plans on continuing to use artwork commissioned from different artists on all its packaging, in order to present the image of the brand in a different way each season.
“We work more spontaneously than a traditional cosmetics brand,” says Chavez. “The hardest part is waiting for our ideas to become a reality and to see the final package after production.”
Chavez believes the most important aspects of a great package design are simplicity, creativity, and originality. So far, the Goldie team has shown they know exactly how to translate creativity into functional packaging.