How Does Architecture Play a Role in Cosmetic Packaging?

4 min readDec 15, 2022

Packaging should invoke continuity and comfort to strengthen the user experience and establish a concrete and emotive link between the brand and the customer. Packaging preserves the essence of beauty by encapsulating its core and framing its allure. Professionally constructing and producing primary packaging solutions with a cosmetically influential but functional design is pivotal to being successful in the market. It is the product of experience and a profound and continuous work of analysis. The goal is to convey the significance of the beauty of perfumes, creams, and make-up into packaging that fills our homes and our bags.

For example, with his box design for Aman Resorts’ new skincare line, avant-garde Japanese architect Kengo Kuma delivered a striking statement in 2018. Kuma’s expertise in organic shapes and natural materials was evident in the design, which resulted in buildings that blended in with their surroundings rather than dominating them. His packaging for Aman is portrayed in curved, voluminous forms, a departure from the linear manner of usual beauty products, and is constructed of a flecked, black substance that resembles burnt wood or black marble.

Similarly, to Kuma, Austrian architect Oskar Leo Kaufmann used black obsidian to create a face roller for his sister, skincare expert Susanne Kaufmann, expressing his appreciation for natural materials. The Bregenz Forest, where Susanne and Oskar grew up, houses a modest production plant where her unique line of serums and body oils are created. These products are prepared using Alpine botanical ingredients. Obsidian, a stone that is supposed to reduce muscle inflammation, strengthen connective tissue, and help the body better absorb vitamins C and D, was obtained by Oskar from the local South Tyrol region in order to make the roller. Oskar afterward added a wooden handle with a steel mount created by Andelsbuch’s master blacksmith and metal specialist Felder, paying proper homage to the region’s skilled labor and raw materials.

The packaging designs by Tokujin Yoshioka, however, are more reminiscent of contemporary cityscapes. Yoshioka created monochrome, sculptural containers for Suqqu’s Vialume skincare range, one of their most recent innovations. The package stands out due to its tall, elegant shapes and extremely shiny, ultra-black surfaces that resemble lacquer. It resembles a miniature cityscape on your bathroom cabinet.

Simultaneously, packaging represents a brand’s identity and sets it apart from competitors. The customer encounters a brand and a product for the first time through the packaging, which creates the initial impression. It is a crucial component of a marketing strategy because it raises the likelihood that new products will succeed, improves the product life cycle of established brands, and elevates the experience to a new degree with customers.

The package design process must be planned and deliberate, just like the brand strategy should be, as it is frequently the first consumer interaction point and a crucial component determining your brand’s experience. Packaging should operate as a tangible brand signal that offers a significant chance to represent your brand’s purpose through a multi-sensory journey that ties your brand to the customer through its appearance, scent, and texture, as well as to the process of unwrapping it.

Below are five important components that should be used from your brand architecture when developing packages.

Core Values: Your packaging must uphold and convey your brand’s set of core values. Identifying every key value that could influence the packaging options is crucial.

Brand positioning: Your brand’s positioning detects the target market and possible transmission routes. To make sure the packaging appeals to the right consumer and functions in the retail space, it is crucial to determine the channel and position.

Communication: The first steps in communication are deciding what and how to convey, creating a naming system, and making sure the voice on the packaging is representative of the broader brand. The next step is to establish a structure for this data on the primary and secondary packages.

Graphic Guidelines: Setting up visual standards for the logo, color scheme, and typography, as well as how each should be used, ensures that the package remains consistent as the brand grows.

Experience: Getting to know the packaging’s materials and structure leaves an impression. The package experience can be straightforward and practical or elevated to the status of a ritual, but it must be taken into consideration and serve as a representation of the brand.

There is strong competition on the shelves and in consumers’ minds. The fact is that customers’ purchasing decisions are heavily influenced by their initial impressions at the point of sale. In other words, your package needs to be a strong part of your brand identification that encourages the buyer to try something new or instantly identifiable for the consumer who has already used your product.

Packaging serves as an assurance of the product’s authenticity, keeping it undamaged and simple to use. It should balance “quality with passion, excellence, creativity, and honesty”. It is crucial to develop a product that is durable, dependable, and efficient in increasing the formula it contains while keeping it intact and effective.

Simply said, your brand is identified by its logo and packaging. They get their significance from the caliber of the good or service they stand for. A variety of interactions and connections with your business and product in any way contact points lead to the inherent worth placed on both in the consumer’s opinion. The brand ecosystem, which results in creating and defining a brand, includes several other crucial components in addition to the package.

Sources: https://www.wallpaper.com/beauty-grooming/architects-design-sculptural-beauty-packaging

https://www.cosmeticsdesign.com/Headlines/Promotional-Features/The-simplicity-of-excellence-in-a-packaging

https://beautymatter.com/articles/packaging-development-and-brand-architecture

https://portella.com/blog/aesthetics-in-everyday-architecture-and-design/

Written By: Yaren Ay

Concept: EY

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