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Aesthetics and Differentiation
by Stéphanie Olion
- Showy products are consistently popular.
- A real research work to choose its technology.
- Several types of treatments for the metal.
Surprise consumers and make them proud of the products they give as gifts or that they buy for themselves. This is the general trend on markets which are becoming increasingly homogenous, where there are more and more sellers and an ever expanding product offer. As a result, packaging manufacturers’ clients today are looking for more and more beautiful packaging that will make their products different and catch consumers’ eyes on store shelves. They need to create unique, personalized objects that consumers will love to show off and can keep.
To add to the aesthetic nature of products and give them that unique very upmarket look, packaging industrialists are focussing on decoration and surface treatment technologies which, alone or combined, let them start with a plastic or metal surface and create a multitude of ever more seductive effects.
Glamour, glamour, glamour!
Products that are glossy, colorful, golden, sequined or pearly, lavish, and just a touch showy are consistently popular. Like the Dior Addict High Color lipstick, made by the Rexam group, which is presented like a long sleeve, with the brand’s initials engraved on the top, highlighted by glossy silver metallization. The cap has Metareflect finishing, a patented process which gives a semi-metallic, semi-transparent effect, thanks to a metallization technique which involves applying, in a vacuum, a layer of atoms that is thin enough to not be opaque but which guarantees a metallic reflection from all angles. As Pauline Uhlen, makeup manager at the Personal Care division of the Rexam group, emphasizes: “the advantage of metallization is that it can produce an infinite variety of renderings or colors, because it lets us apply even just a finish varnish.”
So chic
Among the most sought-after effects are the worked metal look of the Mystic process and the frosted look produced by the Galactic treatment. “Although these surface treatments after metallization are more expensive than traditional metallization, they aren’t reserved for our ‘select’ customers any more,” continues Pauline Uhlen. “Our mass market customers are also looking to stand out and we’re seeing a real move up market with them, which forces our ‘select’ customers to widen the gap.”
For its first perfume, launched on the occasion of its 60th anniversary, the Pucci house imagined a cap reflecting the brand’s world and style. The idea was to display on it the colors and motifs of one of its much-loved prints. The problem was how to reproduce a colored motif on an irregular transparent shape, obtaining perfect visibility from any angle, reproducing the finesse of the graphics and creating a magnifying glass effect to sufficiently enlarge the image. To meet these demands, Rexam chose to tamp print six colors on the inside of a Surlyn shell, a material chosen for its transparency and resistance. “This example shows how every single project requires real research work,” explains Elisabeth Benoît, product manager in charge of developing specific caps for Rexam Personal Care. “You never know what technology we’ll use next. Most of the time, we refine our know-how (lacquering, metallization) or combine decoration techniques (tamp printing, screen printing, hot stamping, lazer, etc.) with surface treatment techniques to get a new rendering or effect. Very rarely do we invest in a new machine.”
Continuing in this quest for aesthetics and differentiation, we’re also seeing a search for elegance and purity, with sober trim, playing on the matte-glossy contrast, different feels, and imitation materials. Extreme simplicity and refinement were the watchwords for the bottle of Guerlain's Instant Magic which plays on the material's transparency and the depth of the black which is double tamp printed on the entire bottom of the cap. For metal media, there are several types of treatments which, alone or combined, can create similar effects or renderings: printing, varnishing, embossing and more rarely, perforation or the insertion of a transparent window. The Sonia Rykiel case, made by Huber Decorative, combines the highly sought-after metallic side with the flat black chosen to show off the brand. This was obtained by applying a soft-feel matte varnish which, in addition to the visual contrast it offers, also diminished the cold impact of the metal somewhat.
One of the other advantages of metal is that relief can be created. “Embossing and denting, let us work the metal at several levels and create very fine and precise relief impressions, which are ideal for highlighting a logo, brand or to play with tactile effects,” explains Christine Decayeux, sales manager for France at Huber Decorative. Another trend is surface imitations. The Martell cognac case, made by Huber Decorative, looks like leather, through offset printing and the application of flat and glossy varnishes. “It’s the combination of these two varnishes that reinforces the cracked look of the decoration and imitates the leather look the best,” explains Christine Decayeux. “We embossed overstitching and the logo.” All that’s missing is that great new leather smell! Sure, but it won’t be long until that’s imitated too, because aromatic varnishes are within the realm of the possible, including at Huber Decorative, “but we weren't ready yet technically when we made this case.”
Functionality and respect for the environment
For sensory effects, let us mention Graindorge, directed by Serge Brigot, which made the collar and stopper of the bottle of Attitude, Armani’s latest perfume for men: a bottle shaped like a cigarette lighter, which reproduces a metal-against-metal snap when it’s closed. This explicit demand in the specifications would have been difficult to respect using any technique other than galvanoplasty, a process which involves applying fairly thick coats of metals on a plastic part. It's a high-quality coating which has the intrinsic qualities of deposited metals:cold contact and the sound of metal.
Solev created a decorative scheme linking the appearance of shiny opaque precious metal with intense transparent sulphur yellow internal highlights.
“In terms of look, we depend on the colors of the chemical products we work,” explains Serge Brigot. “And unfortunately, there aren’t very many metal colors. Basically, electrolysis surface treatments have either the infamous so-called white — therefore metallic — colors, or yellow or more-or-less black, smoky colors. Unlike with varnish or color, we can’t reproduce Pantone.” Still, for luxury lines, a metallic, nickel or chrome treatment can be covered with a colored varnish which, through a transparency effect, will provide great depth to the coating. While the range of effects already available may seem limitless, we can imagine that other routes may yet be explored. We can legitimately look to the most ecologically responsible processes. “We hear a lot about removing hexavalent chromium, which is used in certain processes”, Serge Brigot tells us. “Some specifications also don’t want so-called CMR substances, that is, those that are carcinogenic, mutagenic and toxic for reproduction. Industry will have to find technical solutions to these demands.” And why not join the functional to the aesthetic, for example, by trying to create lacquers which would prevent fingerprints from smearing products. It may be much more trivial, but undeniably very chic!
Originally published in Formes de Luxe No. 63 March 2008. Reproduced by kind permission.
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