JKR

Last week Creative Review ran a piece on the Sainsbury’s design archive. What do you think of the designs?

I found the thread of comments at Creative Review as illuminating as the work. Opinion was largely weighted towards a sentiment of “Wow, amazing modernist design. They should be doing it now, it would look great”.

I think this says something for the frequent chasm between what designers admire and what the public wants. As huge posters some of these pack designs would look pretty retro cool. But in today’s world, put them all on a shelf and they would look cheap and unappetising. As a few folk noted “That was then, this is now”.

Equally interesting was the design strategy behind these designs; to be simple and to stand apart from the noisy brands they were sitting alongside. And the minimal designs would surely have conveyed ‘basic cheap essentials’ in this environment.

I think they add up to a great design programme and look fabulous as a snapshot of the times they lived in. Especially when one considers how bad much branded packaging looked back then. But the world has moved on and such design is now of more relevance to design enthusiasts rather than people filling their shopping baskets.