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6 DESIGN WEEK MAY 2009

AS HE finishes off a productive evening of networking at hisclub, a business host offers his guests a glass of cognac and acigar, cues of indulgence that promise high-end relaxation. Theysubconsciously admire the weight and smooth feel of the boxand the ease with which it slides open to reveal a cache ofquality tobacco.

Dunhill claims to be the perfectionist in tobacco, and its Signedrange of cigars uses the heritage and quality of the brand as apowerful consumer purchasing lever. Dunhill launched new pack-aging at the end of 2008, emphasising the products reputationfor luxury indulgence, presenting it in highly finished, lacqueredwooden gift boxes.

The process of testing the quality of the cigars containers wasdriven by the brands requirement for a highly crafted piece ofpackaging. Prototyping for the project did not involve prototyp-ing specialists or modelling agencies, but followed a process ofselecting four suppliers of the packaging components based onthe samples they created. These included an aluminium platefrom the US, a Central American cedar-wood box, carton boardfrom the Netherlands and the lacquer from the Far East.

Approximately eight or nine versions of the packaging designwent back and forth, says Dominic Burke, design manager atWebb Scarlett deVlam. This was an unusual process, becauseit was so important to understand the levels of quality the sup-pliers were producing.

High-end confectionery brand La Maison du Chocolat uses itscrafted chocolate boxes to reflect its brand values of luxury,elegance, refinement, delicacy and creativity. The chocolatieralso argues that using prototypes close to reality is important.Most of the time we have to work with prototypes which are theexact replica of the future products as the presentation of thechocolates in the box is key and we need exact measurement interm of space and size, says Geoffroy dAnglejan, La Maison du

Chocolat managing director. Our chocolates have different formand shape and we need to be extremely precise to make surethat the packaging is adapted to the contents and the aestheticwe want.

While fmcg packaging design tends to be driven by perform-ance requirements, with differentiation often achieved throughclever bits of engineering, luxury packaging is more likely focusedon a bespoke look and feel. The packaging is the product and theadded value tends to be the uniqueness and reference to thetraditional or cutting-edge in design.

Mass-producing effects that are traditionally associated withcraft, including glass, wood, metal and leather, are key. Muchof the prototyping for luxury goods packaging uses skills from

PACKAGING

Shaping luxuryHow do you achieve that hand-crafted, bespoke feel of premium packs?

Using prototypes that are close to the finished product can ease the process of making the

mass-produced look unique, says Maeve Hosea

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PROTOTYPING TECHNIQUES USED IN LUXURY

DESIGN WEEK MAY 2009 7

PACKAGING

fields such as glassblowing, carpentry or silversmithing, ormimicking them with manufactured materials such as injection-moulded plastic.

Experimentation in the luxury packaging sector might includedecorative effects to blown glass through formers, metallic addi-tives and special pigments, or increasing surface patina on metaland wood through heat treatment.

Designers are continually challenging materials and processesto come up with new and unexpected combinations, such astattooed wood, knitted metal and glass blown with carbon fibre,comments Rob Thompson, designer and author of Manufactur-ing Processes for Design Professionals.

The visual and tactile qualities of these new developmentsare both unique and familiar, which is a powerful combinationfor luxury products at a time when we are making more consid-ered purchases.

In a recent packaging design project, packaging specialistDesign Bridge leveraged the premium design of the Rmy Mar-tin Extra brands decanter, making it the hero by using its outerbox to act as a frame to focus on the bottle. A protective cardslipcase adds to the sense of luxury and preciousness; slidingthe bottle from the slipcase should be like opening a gift. Asdesigners in such projects are often breaking new ground andthe process had an artisan complexity, it needed to have realisticprototyping at an early stage.

Packaging at the luxury end for sectors such as perfumes andspirits needs to be elaborate in terms of components and caninclude things like a crystal decanter, a metal collar, or a corkstopper, comments Nick Verebelyi, head of 3D branding andpackaging at Design Bridge. The more parts you have, the morelikelihood of things not fitting together. Cost and time have alwaysbeen barriers to bringing prototyping forward in the designprocess, but if you do it liberates creativity. G

1-3 Dunhills Signed range of

cigars, showing a close-up of

a cigar label, a signature card

and a plaque, all designed by

Dutch consultancy Webb

Scarlett deVlam

4 A card slipcase which

features the outline of the

bottle adds an extra layer of

luxury to the packaging for

Rmy Martin Extra champagne

cognac, created by Design

Bridge

5 Prototypes close to the

finished product are important

for creating La Maison du

Chocolats gift boxes, which

rely on exact measurements

6 New Bols Genever bottle,

launched at the end of

2008. Designed by Dutch

consultancy Staat

At the high end, points of difference and a feeling of quality aretypically maximised by using highly crafted work, abstract formsand fine finishing:

3D high-definition printing used to produce prototype partswith an accuracy of 0.025 to 0.05mm

SLA (stereolithography) production used for both small andlarge high-quality parts similar to that of 3D printing

Polyjet a rapid prototyping technology similar to an SLAprocess, but rather than setting the resin by aiming a UV laserinto a bath of resin it works more like a printer. Small dropletsof resin are deposited and then set by a UV bulb that followsthe printing head. This means that the only resin used is thematerial printed and therefore the process is a lot cleaner

Hollow resin models to produce bottle and decanter proto-types that look real and can be filled with actual liquids for fullrealistic effect. Clarity is comparative with crystal and has highaccuracy with controllable internal bottle shapes

3D CNC machining used to produce quick high-quality foammodels to assist with the development of a products formand ergonomics

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