Challenge: Design, Poetry, and Muffins
Just as great poets reinvent and reinvigorate language, designers can do the same for the designed world. There is a sense of wonder and joy that arises from knowing about and holding in your hands the results of creative design reinvention. A toilet paper roll without the tube! A shoebox that doesn’t require so much cardboard! An aspirin bottle without the box! Sustainability is a way to improve your bottom line and enchant your customers. As Chris Hacker said in an interview I did for Print, “We’re not just making sustainable things for the sake of doing sustainable stuff—our real job is to make sure that we’re providing a really great consumer experience for people.”
If you are a designer designing a package, or an executive making a decision about packaging, the same advice applies: Think reinvention. Those who do—among them Chris Hacker and Yves Béhar—are designing in an elegant way while building buzz and generating consumer delight. They’re proving that you can add value and sales through a rethink based on a devotion to design innovation.
Nothing should be taken for granted. Do you need packaging at all? If you’re a soap manufacturer, you might say, “Yes, certainly.” But then look at Sappo Hill, which doesn’t use packaging for each individual bar of soap. The bars are delivered to the store a dozen to a single recycled paper tray, saving our friends at Sappo quite a lot of money and reducing packaging in the process. That to me is design poetry. Was that really that difficult? (Memo to Procter & Gamble: Why aren’t you doing this?)
Or take the aformentioned toilet paper roll without the cardboard tube. Genius! Not only is the necessary rejiggering not so difficult, but it saves boatloads of money and resources.
Since these examples of creative thinking are so inspiring, we’ve decided to start a series of posts focusing on reinvention. We will present “assignments” to reinvent a category, and we’d love to hear your ideas for new design approaches that might be implemented. It’s a chance to put aside the dead lexicon of designs past: We want you to reinvent the vocabulary.
Our first sustainability challenge focuses on something every bit as quotidian and mundane as toilet paper: English muffins. Why? Because lately I’ve been eating a lot of them. I think it has something to do with reverting to the comforts of childhood, when I ate Thomas’ English muffins every now and then. As I’ve returned to eating versions of this product, I’ve been irked that it comes in packaging with a paper tray, so as I’m eating my breakfast, I have to consider the footprinted baggage of the plastic wrapper and the dead trees that come along with it.
Can you figure out how to design the packaging so that this simple breakfast snack comes without the added footprint of dead trees? Is it just as simple as getting rid of the tray and packaging the muffins in the same way as supermarket bagels? Can you even take the petroleum products out of the equation, and rethink muffin packaging to the point that you can get rid of the plastic bag, too?
I realize that there’s an aspect of branding that goes along with the muffin tray, but this design is one of those “we’ve been doing it a certain way for so long that we are incapable of realizing that there’s a better way to do it.” Time for some new ideas. Go to it, and share your thoughts about better solutions in the comments!
In the same way that great writers and poets reinvent language to make jaded words and experiences come alive, designers can do the same for the designed world, enchanting the consumer through aesthetic, creative, and intellectual discovery. There is a sense of wonder and joy that arises from knowing about and holding in your hands the results of creative design reinvention. A toilet paper roll without the tube! A shoebox http://www.puma.com/cleverlittlebag#sustainability that doesn’t require so much damn cardboard! An aspirin bottle without the box! Sustainability is a way to improve your bottom line and enchant your customers. As Chris Hacker said in an interview http://printmag.com/Article/Toeing-the-Triple-Bottom-Line I did for Print http:printmag.com, “We’re not just making sustainable things for the sake of doing sustainable stuff—our real job is to make sure that we’re providing a really great consumer experience for people.
If you are a designer designing a package, or an executive making a decision about packaging, etc. (or you know someone who is and wouldn’t mind forwarding this URL to them), all I can say is this: Think reinvention! Those who do, among them Chris Hacker http://www.id-mag.com/article/Clean-Clear/, Yves Behar http://bit.ly/f0zovL and others, are designing in an elegant way while building buzz and generating consumer delight in the process. They’re proving that you can add value and sales through rethinking and going all-out with design innovation. Nothing should be taken for granted. Do you need packaging at all? If you’re a soap manufacturer, you might say, “Yes, certainly.” But then look at Sappo Hill http://www.sappohill.com/, which doesn’t use packaging for each individual bar of soap. The bars are delivered to the store a dozen to a single recycled paper tray, saving our friends at Sappo Hill quite a lot of money and reducing packaging in the process. That to me is design poetry. Was that really that difficult? Memo to P&G: Why aren’t you doing this?
In the spirit of nurturing designers to be more poetically Living Principled, we are starting a series focusing on reinvention: We want to help all of you become the Woolfs, Saramagos, Calvinos, and Borgeses of the design world, so we’re going to present to you, our creative hope for the future, assignments to reinvent a category, and we’d love to hear your ideas. But we will not accept tired, hackneyed old phrases from the dead lexicon of designs past. We want you to reinvent the vocabulary.
Our first sustainability challenge focuses on, er, muffins.
. Why? Because lately, for some reason, I’ve been eating a lot of muffins. I think it has something to do with reverting to the comforts of childhood, when I actually did eat Thomas’ English muffins every now and then. Now I’m eating healthier versions of this baked good, but one thing that irks me is that said bread comes in packaging with the paper tray. So as I’m eating my breakfast (or dessert) of muffin, dates, cashews, and olive oil, I have to consider the footprinted baggage of the plastic wrapper and the dead trees that come along with my morning (or evening) snack. Can you, o Nerudas of design, o prose poets of design language, figure out how to design the packaging so that muffin eaters around the world can eat their whole wheat, multigrain, or white muffins without the added footprint of dead trees? Is it just as simple as getting rid of the tray and packaging them the way that bagels are? Can you even take the petroleum products out of the equation, and rethink muffin packaging to the point that you can get rid of the plastic bag, too? The muffin tray is one of those “we’ve been doing it a certain way for so long that we are incapable of realizing that there’s a better way to do it.” Time for reinvention.Go to it, and let us know your ideas. And while you’re at it, can you recommend how to design an effective nationwide grocery store reclamation system for food-wrapping rubber bands and twist ties? Many of us stock some rubber bands and twist ties at home, but after our stashed cache is complete, we (or at least I) end up throwing the extras in the garbage, unsure, despite my devotion to not throwing things away, what the heck to do with so many of them. How much more elegant would it be if there was an incentive and reclamation program to give them back at the grocery store. Or if we didn’t need them at all?
Don’t get me started on plastic bags.
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5 Comments
Thanks for suggesting this, Jeremy! English muffins are a favorite breakfast food. The packaging is always easy to recognize (although now you have to check to make sure you’re not grabbing mini pitas instead) but since you mention it, that paper tray does seem excessive. If they were packaged more like bagels or bread, all stacked together, you could fit more in a bag. Now, how to avoid the bag? The plastic bag keeps the bread fresh and protects it in the freezer. Has anyone created a more eco-friendly freezer-safe bag yet?
While we’re at it, can we also figure out a way to make them more fork-splittable? I’ve mangled many a muffin trying to separate them in half!
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What if there was a way to make a simple waxed-rice paper bag, or material similar to the “If You Care” waxed paper? Their material is completely compostable, and the translucent quality would allow the customer to visually engage with the semi-hidden muffins tucked inside while still protecting the muffins from external contamination. The graphic logo could be a simple screen print with eco-friendly inks, pre-waxing perhaps.
Protects muffins? check. Visually appealing? check. Environmentally responsible? check.
I think with some well explored form and logo development, this could be a viable solution to the plastic/cardboard packaging issue.
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Jennifer, this is an excellent idea–as you say, it meets all the criteria of what we’re looking for. I’m also curious to know if someone might have a reusable solution–like a tin requiring a deposit that could be brought back to the store in the same way that glass milk bottles are at Whole Foods. Or just bulk muffins that you can put in packaging that you bring yourself. But that opens up a whole other ball of logistical wax in areas where the infrastructure isn’t already set up.
I’ve been hearing different opinions on whether compostable packaging is really the way to go. My understanding is that there is an energy and resource investment that is lost when something biodegrades. Perhaps a better solution might be reuse. But compostable is good as an interim step. I’d be curious to hear other readers’ thoughts on this.
@Sue–Jennifer’s idea responds nicely to the question you posed. And I no longer use forks to split muffins, for the very same reason you describe–I use a knife.
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A muffin company that wanted to brand themselves as being the “old standby”, with lots of history in the muffin biz (real or imagined) you could do worse than a tin…something nice and 19th-century would do the trick.
I’d probably approach it from the position of an in-market bakery, since re-use is what would make it cost-effective for the seller. Shipping (relatively) heavier tins of muffins all around the place wouldn’t be enviro-friendly, plus you’d probably take the cost of half a dozen muffins from about $2.40 up to $5 with a tin.
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In-market is a great idea, as is making the design part of a premium positioning. That kind of approach would work well for a place like Whole Foods, Mother’s Market, or other groceries that position themselves as stewards of the environment–or anyone else for that matter. Whole Foods does have a bulk baked goods section, but the packaging there, while minimal, is still throwaway. With muffins or any other category, I think the best strategy is for “bulk” quantity distribution (or in-store production) with as minimal packaging as possible, and then in-store distribution points where customers can bring their own reusable packaging. That approach is being adopted now more widely, with companies that are now offering bulk laundry detergent dispensers, etc., at stores.
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