Today’s consumer is playing striptease with their packaging: how minimal can you go?

Trending right now in package design is minimalism: clean, simple, graphic-free, often recyclable packaging for our daily essentials. By virtue of being minimalist – listing only the need-to-know basics – a new generation of designers is recognizing that the less distraction they put on the outside of a product gives consumers greater license to become more engaged with what’s on the inside.

Brands that rely on minimalism to sell their wares assume the best about us: that we can make informed decisions without the influence of swirling rainbows and fairy dust. Here are seven household brands and concepts that use the simple kind of straightforward, minimalist packaging we can’t wait to see on a shelf near us.

NEVET (Hebrew for “sprout”) is a conceptual company that manufactures DIY home growing hydroponic kits, the idea being that you can grow your own edible plants when the going gets tough, or the produce gets too expensive. The concept and minimalist packaging was designed by Israeli college student Or Smarli.

Egg Box recreates the egg crate in as minimalist of a way as possible without compromising functionality, by Budapest-based designer Otília Andrea Erdélyi.

The packaging for BluePrintJuice (check for availability here) was designed by Doubleday and Cartwright, listing simply the ingredients in a boldly contrasting font offset against (you got it) blue print. Minimalist food packaging at its best.

The Origami Food Box, designed by Michealle Lee for an eatery in Manila, Philippines called Guactruck, is meant to resemble a bud that blossoms into a flower. The minimalist packaging uses only one piece of paperboard with no glue or plastic.

Red or White was designed by Peter Bankov and Julia Nevstrueva of Design Depot to take the guesswork out of distinguishing between French, Italian or Spanish wine, whittling the choice down to a Good White or Good Red.

Designed by Australian student Lesley Morris for a conceptual boutique tissue, toilet paper and sanitary product company called dryer*, the packaging itself is meant to create brand desirability particularly for the fashion conscious consumer or perfect minimalist out to spruce up a gray palette.

UK designer Ruth Pearson came up with this packaging concept for Tesco, for when a bean is really just a bean.

Image: Antrepo

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With new collections of both eco-friendly shoes and sunglasses, as well as an increasing commitment to greening some of their practices, could Gucci emerge as the high-fashion leader in sustainability?

Even though it seems like a no-brainer, sustainability practices have not yet had a big breakthrough at the high-fashion houses of the world. However, with two recent product launches and an increasing commitment to eco-friendly practices, it seems like Gucci is starting to put some focus on sustainability.

On the heels of the Copenhagen Fashion Summit, Gucci came out with a new eco-friendly line of shoes. Named “Sustainable Soles” and designed by Gucci Creative Director Frida Giannini, the shoes are made from biodegradable plastic, not unlike the material used by Brazilian shoemaker Melissa, sourced from compost. The line includes two styles – the Marola Green ballerina flat for women featuring cutout details and a signature GG logo and comes in a variety of colors, while the California Green men’s sneaker comes in a low- and high-top version and features bio-rubber soles, vegetable-tanned calf skin, bio laces and recycled polyester.

After producing a small range of sustainably made eyewear in collaboration with Safilo last year, it seems that Gucci has renewed the commitment to environmentally friendly sunglasses with a new collection, made from liquid wood. It’s the first time this innovative biodegradable material has been used in sunglasses. Made from bio-based materials – wood fiber from sustainably managed forests, lignin from the paper manufacturing process and natural wax – liquid wood is a great alternative to the plastic that is so frequently used in eyewear. The cases were also designed for space and weight efficiency, which cuts carbon emissions from transport by 60%.

Two years ago, in June 2010, Gucci dipped their toes in the sustainability bucket by launching a completely new range of packaging, also created by Frida Giannini, that is 100% recyclable. The plastic laminated surfaces that are so commonly seen on high-fashion shopping bags were replaced with a more subtle beater-dyed paper de-bossed with Gucci’s famous GG logo, and the paper used to create the bags is sourced only from certified forests. On the recently launched Creative Sustainability Lab on PPR’s main website, Gucci states that they will continue to push for “the use of other biodegradable materials, such as corn, bamboo and cotton.”

Gucci is also gradually replacing printed materials with e-cards and e-catalogues, and new transportation policies have reduced the use of trucks by 30%. Also, each new Gucci mannequin will be made in Italy, from 100% recyclable polystyrene that is 100% recyclable and finished with water based paints. Patrizio di Marco, President and CEO of Gucci, said “The world’s leading brands are rightly judged today, not just on the quality of their products and services, but also on the way they act in the community and towards the environment.”

Sure, there’s a lot more that Gucci could, and should do when it comes to sustainability, but it all has to start somewhere. We can only hope that these efforts are the start of something bigger.

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