Applications: Packaging Science with Art
Stock containers give a science-based line a cohesive elegance.
By Daphne Allen, Group EditorCan a skin care line successfully promote the antiaging benefits of both high-tech lasers and botanicals? Can the line’s packaging draw inspiration from contemporary art and express product benefits effectively, all in stock containers?
Ada Polla Tray, president of Alchimie Forever LLC, likes to think so. With these ideals in mind, Polla Tray redesigned and expanded the Alchimie Forever line started by her parents, Drs. Luigi and Barbara Polla, in 2000.
In 1997, Luigi, a renowned dermatologist, and Barbara, a respected research doctor studying cellular aging, opened the first European medical spa, Forever Laser Institut, in Geneva. In 2000 they launched Alchimie Forever, a line of skin care products intended to combat aging with natural antioxidants like rosemary and blueberries. Some of the artists shown in their other venture, the contemporary art gallery Analix Forever, helped design the spa’s interior look as well as the product line. In 2003, a second spa was opened in Geneva.
Polla Tray originally thought about starting her own medical spa in the United States, but she ultimately decided to distribute Alchimie Forever, bringing it to the United States. A packaging redesign, however, was in order.
“Because our spa clientele used our line based on our spa doctors’ recommendations, we hadn’t invested in packaging,” says Polla Tray. “We needed to redo our packaging to show the product line as being separate from our spas’ identity.”
Polla Tray spent most of 2003 researching potential packaging suppliers. She eventually decided upon Hopf (Germany) and Lumson (Italy) to supply stock containers.
Hopf provided white plastic jars, and Lumson provided polished glass containers and translucent plastic containers. “We like polished glass—it feels more precious than plastic,” she says.
Because Polla Tray wanted a visually unique and high-end look, she decided to customize the stock containers through decoration. She selected a periwinkle-type blue for the product names—all hailing from laser technology—and for “Alchimie.” She learned, however, that Pantone colors printed on white paper look a bit different when printed on glass. “When we filled the glass bottles, we found that we couldn’t read the blue print as well,” she explains. “We have since darkened the blue. It’s not a horrendous mistake, but you live and learn.”
She also wanted to do something fun with the caps and give them an extra touch. “Very few people use the caps for design differentiation,” she observes. “We decided to put our logo on all capped bottles and jars.” Appearing almost as an arrow made with dotted lines, the logo is based on the “A” in Alchimie.
The finger pumps supplied by Lumson for the eye balm, Superpulse, and the age-defying serums Diode 1 + Diode 2 are ergonomically contoured, easing dispensing. The squeezable plastic container for one of the line’s newest products, the Excimer purifying facial cleanser, features a matte finish that Polla Tray calls “the plastic equivalent of polished glass.” It also features a twist-open dispensing cap that doesn’t come off. “We have received so many good comments on how easy the cap is to use,” she adds.