Designer Interview: Kathleen Lewis
Kathleen LewisKathleen Lewis Beauty Worldwide
By Marie Redding, Senior EditorOne of the basic rules of package design is that a package must reflect a brand’s identity. Kathleen Lewis of Kathleen Lewis Beauty Worldwide followed this rule when designing the packaging for her skin care line. “There is nothing complicated about my products, so I knew I needed a simple design concept,” says Lewis. It was very important to her that the line look very basic.
“Skin care has become so complicated and scientific. My line is just the opposite,” she says. It seems that consumers are also interested in a simplified skin care routine, because every month Lewis receives more calls from interested store buyers. “The simple graphic design on my labels helps me to convey the fact that my formulas are made with simple ingredients,” she says.
Lewis created her brand in 2002. “That was the first year I put my name on my packages,” she says. Prior to that, she had already been making her own personal care products for herself and friends for more than 10 years.
One day Lewis spotted a new neighborhood boutique where she lives in Park Slope, Brooklyn. Local designers made a lot of the items. “I loved the handmade clothing from local designers in the store, so I asked the owners if they’d be interested in selling my handmade soap. That’s how I started selling my products, but I still wasn’t thinking about doing it full time,” she says. Lewis packaged her first soaps in clear acetate wrapping with a label on the front, printed on her home computer.
Two weeks later, Lewis was shopping in a new boutique in Manhattan. “The owners just happened to be standing there talking about the store in Park Slope. It was a sign,” she says. “We started talking, and they asked me if I made other products.”
Her products quickly began selling out of that store, but it wasn’t until a year later when Lewis finally decided to officially launch her business. She redesigned her packages and started to use her name on her labels—the first step toward building the Kathleen Lewis brand.
Lewis chose standard glass jars with white metal caps for her moisturizing creams and bath salts, and white plastic bottles with airless foaming dispensers for her cleansers. “Small companies can’t afford to design custom packages, so your choices can be limited—but it’s still important to create a uniform look,” she says. White laminated labels are decorated with a colored stripe, color-coded according to the type of essential oil used in a product.
Specifically, the colors on the labels help attract new customers to the line in stores. Lewis spent a lot of time making sure the colors were the right hues. “The colors needed to pop, and I wanted them to look different from primaries or pastels,” she says. “I wanted them to be strong, but a little bit off.”
It is this simple, modern design aesthetic that has helped the brand get attention from buyers for up- scale boutiques. “Everyone tells me how attractive the line looks on store shelves when the different-colored stripes are all lined up next to each other,” she says.