Designer Interview: Dana and Shaun Roberts
Dana and Shaun Roberts
Malie Kauai
By Marie Redding, Senior EditorThe Malie Kauai brand was founded by husband and wife team Shaun and Dana Roberts. Sold at spas, resorts, and luxury boutiques, the products in the line feature exotic scents such as gardenia, plumeria, pikake, coconut vanilla, and coconut pineapple.
The Malie Kauai brand incorporates pure, water-based Hawaiian hydrosols in all of its products and doesn’t use any essential oils. The hydrosols, which are the most basic unit of a plant, are derived from Kauai’s tropical plants and flowers. "We discovered that Hawaiian plants and flowers are mostly water derived. They contain few essential oils, so all of the fragrances in tropical products are artificial. We’re the first company to use genuine Hawaiian hydrosols as the base fragrance," says Dana.
The Robertses were always drawn to flowers, even before they knew each other. While growing up in California, Shaun worked as a gardener, and Dana as a florist. They met while attending San Diego State University, and both went on to work in sales and marketing for the same nonbeauty-industry company. In 2002, shortly after they married, the couple decided to trade in their suits for leis and moved to Kauai. "The beauty and scents of Kauai inspired us to create these products because I wanted to share them with the rest of the world," says Dana. It took two years to develop the line. The first products were shipped in April 2004.
The Robertses work together as a team to create the packaging. Dividing up some of the responsibilities, Dana does most of the creative design and product development. Her talents lie in designing new packaging concepts for future products. Shaun handles the technical packaging and purchasing duties by working directly with suppliers.
Local Kauai artist Marc Daniels was commissioned to create artwork based on flowers. His artwork is used on the folding cartons. "He creates paintings for us and we scan them into digital files. Then we can take parts of it and adapt it for each package by changing its size and depth," explains Dana. "We felt that using artwork would look more high-end than a photograph." The background color is stark white, which helps the vibrant colors of the flowers pop.
"It seems that now if you don’t have a custom box, customers won’t even look at your product. More-lavish folding cartons and boxes have become standard and expected by the consumer, but we plan on minimizing our use of secondary packaging in the future," says Dana. She adds that outer cartons were important when the line first launched because they provided the space needed to convey the brand’s initial message to the consumer. Now, she feels that many consumers are already familiar with the brand, and she wants to streamline the outer packaging in order to set the line apart from the competition. "I am creating more indigenous looks for secondary packages now. We will use more types of packages that will be useful to the consumer later, like hand-carved coconut bowls, instead of cartons. Too much money is being put into cartons, and cartons are of no value to the consumer after their initial use," Dana says.
"In the near future, we will be offering consumers packages that will really be keepsakes," promises Dana.