In Closing: Hidden Value
A new type of label is concealed inside a container’s walls.
By Jennifer Kwok, Managing EditorIn 1999, Dean Rhoades, along with his wife, Amby Longhofer, founded the DermaNew skin care brand. According to Rhoades, U.S. patent records show that DermaNew launched the industry’s first microdermabrasion system that can be used in a spa, during traveling, or at home. Now, Rhoades has embarked on another business venture as a packaging engineer.
Rhoades calls his invention the Scroll Container. It offers marketers a new way to label a package. Instead of featuring a label that’s stuck to the surface of a container, a Scroll Container’s label is housed between the walls of a double-walled container. “You pull the label out like a tape measure to read it, and you can also easily push it back in,” says Rhoades.
Rhoades describes how he came up with the invention. “I was preparing some of our DermaNew packaging to go to the European market, and I was wondering how I was going to put text in English, French, Spanish, and Italian on a 2-oz jar,” he says. “That’s when I started thinking about the dynamics of a cosmetic container. I went to my workshop, took out a hacksaw, and cut a slit between the walls of one of our DermaNew jars. Then I cut a piece of paper about eight inches long and stuck it between the two walls of the jars. I called my patent attorney to run a patent search for it. There was nothing else like it on the market, so I submitted it for a patent.” Rhoades hired Beverly Hills–based designer Robert Radi to study the feasibility of producing his invention. Some of the packages Radi designed to accommodate this type of label are a nail polish bottle and a powder jar.
The label itself is made from Mylar. “Mylar was ideal because it’s strong, waterproof, and it has a shape memory that works well when the label is being wound in and out,” says Rhoades.
The technology is currently patent pending. Distributor TricorBraun has a nonexclusive contract to distribute the containers. Rhoades describes how the label would work well in a number of industries. “If you used it on a pharmaceutical container, you could put a piece of plastic on the container that would magnify the text on the label as the label was unwound,” he says. “Or you could even print the label in Braille for the blind to read. Containers could store directions in multiple languages, photos, recipes, and coupons.”
Rhoades will be the first to test his new invention. This fall, DermaNew will launch a new antiaging acne cream called Jewel Therapy in a Scroll Container.
Package designers will be pleased with the design flexibility the Scroll Container affords. “Right now, most container walls have to be pretty flat so that they can accommodate a label or be printed on,” says Rhoades. “Now, you can have walls that aren’t flat, since the label is in between the container’s walls.” n