JKR

Even at first sight, do the packs above already look a little familiar to you? I don’t seek to pick on these particular designs – in truth a quick trawl of packaging sites such as www.thedieline.com will immediately throw up lots more just like them, but that’s kind of the issue. Just a couple of years ago, a wave of new brands launched with quirky designs and an indie spirit. They often had an artisan design quality (a refreshing change after years of FMCG packaging which shared homogeneous mac-designed sheen) and a folksy approach to copy and iconography:

But the spirited look of this new wave was quickly copied and recycled, becoming a set of conventions as formulaic as the old big brand equivalents. Simply put, brands aspiring to appear original are looking unoriginal. As a sliver of evidence of this, here are two packs viewed seconds apart on The Dieline:

But conversely, there is happily plenty of evidence on The Dieline’s site of an independent approach still thriving which suggests that the indie brand trend still has some mileage yet. The smart designer or client will look to the brand to inform the visual answer, not just the fashions of the day…