2008 Editors’ Choice Award Winner: Fragrance
Coach
by BeautyBank
The Coach fragrance package does exactly what an award-worthy design should—perfectly establish the connection between a fragrance and its brand in the mind of the consumer.
The bottle and the box are adorned with Coach’s signature interlocking C pattern. Reed Krakoff, creative director at Coach, designed the bottle. “This packaging really reflects the brand, which is so important. It’s very Coach,” says CPC Packaging awards panelist Nicole Smith, environmental director for Design & Source Productions Inc.
Panelist Corey Gelman, owner of fragrance brand Chic Baby, agrees. “Often, consumers will only try a new perfume if they already like the brand. This bottle sells the brand name. The bottle design emphasizes the one aspect, [the Coach logo], that is most appealing to the consumer, and it’s very, very smart.”
Executing the innovative design concept was a technical achievement, accomplished by the packaging team at The Estée Lauder Companies’ BeautyBank division, along with its suppliers.
A complex decorating process was used on the bottle. Solev decorated the glass using vacuum metallizing. During the decorating process, a thin coating of aluminum was applied to the glass, giving the entire bottle a shiny finish. Next, a laser etching process removed the metallization, creating the outline of the Cs.
“This process is challenging because very tight glass tolerances are required. The laser that is used must be reprogrammed whenever the bottle dimensions vary too much,” says Scott Roman, director of package development for BeautyBank. The bottle was supplied by Saint-Gobain Desjonquères. The pump was supplied by Rexam Dispensing Systems.
A cap made from DuPont’s Surlyn was supplied by Lombardi Design & Manufacturing. “Sometimes Surlyn poses a problem during our rigorous testing procedures, but our supplier made sure that there were no issues,” says Roman. A polypropylene band around the cap’s base was produced in Coach’s signature shade of red. An engraved metal hangtag around the bottle’s neck adds a finishing touch and resembles the charms on Coach’s handbags.
The setup box supplied by Knoll Packaging was decorated with a matching silver hot-stamped and embossed C pattern on five sides. “It’s a very impressive box,” says awards panelist Alan Bodker, executive director of Origins package development.
The box’s base was designed so that the bottle sits in a die-cut opening. Because some bottles are slightly wider due to variations in glass thickness, this type of box is often a challenge to use. “We had to make sure that each bottle would fit inside every box just right,” says Roman.
Awards panelist Steve Corsi, director of design development for Markwins International, praises this package: “Luxury is often best conveyed through the details. Every part of this design is so well thought out, right down to the metal hangtag, and it shows.”