Designer Interview: Timothy Bahash
Timothy Bahash
4mula
By Jennifer Kwok, Managing EditorAfter speaking with Timothy Bahash, you may come away feeling a little guilty about the impact packaging has on the environment. However, Bahash may also make you feel a little better about how consumers can take responsibility for environmental friendliness. Bahash’s personal care company, 4mula, launched in 2004, sets a prime example of how to maximize the use of packaging and minimize packaging waste.
As a young brand, 4mula has stepped into the spotlight. It has received a lot of attention for its flagship product, a bar of soap. For this product, last year 4mula won a 2005 International Package Design Award.
The 4mula Barbox is no ordinary bar soap. It comprises three bars of soap stacked together. One bar is a rectangular soap bar. Two soap bars—called Ergobars—stack on either side of the rectangular bar. The Ergobars are designed with legs, much like a table. The legs keep the bar elevated above any residual water in a soap dish.
The Barbox has drummed up a lot of press because its design is both distinctive and functional. Though the Barbox has received a lot of attention, the rest of 4mula’s packaging is even more impressive.
Bahash develops all of 4mula’s products and packaging. The packages reflect what he values most in packaging—a no-fuss look, and above all, environmental friendliness.
The packaging for 4mula reflects Bahash’s values—a streamlined style, and above all, environmental friendliness.To make 4mula’s packaging environmentally friendly, Bahash has found a unique solution. He only uses bottles and jars that consumers can reuse to hold other items. “We have precious little time to save the environment,” he says. “Even the recycling of plastics, in spite of its noble intentions, can be damaging to the environment and can generate pollution. So we built reusability into packaging that would otherwise be thrown away. If you actually have packaging that can be used after a product’s shelf life, you give it purpose and add to its value.”
The components are often sourced from stock laboratory packaging. Some of the bottles and jars include removable orifice reducers that control dispensing of the 4mula product. Once a container is empty of product, the orifice reducer can be removed to make the container’s mouth wider. Bahash purposely picks containers with wide mouths so that customers can use the packaging to store a lot of different types of products. Most importantly, says Bahash, 4mula’s labels are printed on vinyl stock, which has an adhesive that allows it to peel away easily, allowing customers to relabel the containers to their liking.
To encourage customers to reuse 4mula’s containers, 4mula’s Web site features “The (Re)user’s Gallery,” a collection of images submitted by 4mula customers who have found unique ways to reuse 4mula packaging. The photos show 4mula’s containers being used to hold everything from paint to gardening seeds and metal screws.
The utilitarian look of the laboratory containers reflects 4mula’s image and Bahash’s tastes. Bahash says that his tendency toward streamlined style is a result of his experience in the design field. With a BFA in design from Carnegie Mellon University, he spent years doing brand design work for clients. “One of the things distinguishing the line—and that makes it somewhat undistinguishable—is its absence of branding, which is deliberate,” he says. “My friends and I find it amusing that even though we work in brand design, we hate packaging that screams branding. For me, it’s a visual disruption that invades my personal space. In my own home, I tend to repackage items that I buy into brand-free containers.”
Thus, 4mula’s plain white labels with black type are devoid of loud, attention-getting graphics and phrases like “New and Improved!” that Bahash calls “fussy, hollow messages.” Instead, the text focuses on the product ingredients. Bahash says that he also likes the way the line’s bottles allow for a streamlined presentation. “The bottles are rectangular, which allows them to hold more product per square inch than cylinders,” he says. “And on the bathroom counter, they line up with bookshelf efficiency.”
Another standard Bahash sets for 4mula’s packages is that they must be made in the United States. “At this time, we can’t closely monitor the conditions in which packages are made overseas,” he says. “If you go to trade shows, you’ll see bottles being sold for 7 cents. You know that someone has suffered in the process of that bottle being made. We refuse to be any part of that, and if we ever do entertain buyout or licensing options, that will always be a stipulation for us.”
If Bahash sounds idealistic, it’s because he is. But by founding 4mula and giving consumers an option for environmentally friendly packaging and all-natural products, he puts his money where his mouth is. And he has garnered a loyal following in upscale stores such as Fred Segal.
Bahash is the first to admit that, prior to starting 4mula, he didn’t think a lot about what types of ingredients were in the products he was buying, and how the packaging could be detrimental to the environment. For instance, Bahash, who is a vegetarian, had a rude awakening when he discovered that the soap he’d been buying was derived from tallow, or animal fat. “I discovered I was actually violating my own ethics,” he says. “It was one of those moments when you really stop and evaluate how you’re responsible as a consumer. Until then, I hadn’t been the savviest of consumers. I was your average consumer. But we all come to our own discoveries at our own pace. It’s what you do with that discovery that’s important. It’s what you do with what you know.”