Trends 2017, Part 1: Nature Idealised
The farther people get from nature, the more idealised nature becomes. This post looks at how this is effecting shopping, new products, and packaging design.
This is PART 1 of our simplified summary of The Dieline’s 13 Emerging Package Design + Consumer Shopping Trends of 2017, report. A big report in small bites for busy designers and product developers.
Shopping and Design
In 2017 consumers will continue to expect more and more from brands. This is changing the way people shop, which is changing the structure of packaging, which changes the experience. All of these need to be reflected in the visual designs to satisfy customers’ desires on the deepest levels.
Anyone who follows our blog will recognise trends in this report that we wrote about in 2015 and 2016. These trends are continuing to grow and become more specific.
Undigital designs will be even more popular this year. Less packaging will be more popular. People are becoming even more overloaded, and their hope is becoming heavier to hold which makes them look back to "more simple" times; they continue to expect more personalisation, more story, more higher purpose, more intense experiences, and to be fully at the centre of those experiences.
"An innovative and contemporary liquid packaging system, the can is made from 75% wood, is fully recyclable, and made mostly from renewable paperboard from sustainably managed forests." From
The Dieline, designed by Horse.
Part 1: Nature Idealised.
Design:
The colour palettes, textures, shapes, and proportions reflect the outdoors, soft and natural, but simplified.
People miss nature, feel they are losing it, but do not have time for it. Design is reflecting this with idealised representations of nature.
Simple and light floral designs and line drawings that are idealised and pure. Think undigital, hand crafted designs.
Supermarket isles should be like a walk in nature, an escape, but without the dirt or danger.
The Pantone colour of the year is the green of new spring plants.
"Nature’s neutral, PANTONE Greenery is a versatile “trans-seasonal” shade that lends itself to many color combinations." See the palettes here.
“Consumers want … simpler, more natural products and brands with character, stories and soul. . . . The stylized drawings in [Absolut Botanik] feel like they’ve come straight from an artist’s notebook after spending days observing the wild.” From The Dieline, designed by Boldinc.
“Each soap is wrapped in paper with images indicative of the scents, and opening them feels like opening a special gift.” From The Dieline, designed by Menta.
Shopping:
The shopping trend is “Less but better.” Simple, minimal packaging, with as little waste as possible, with the possibility to be reused, or at least easily recycled.
"Harper Macaw is a bean to bar craft chocolate manufacturer that turns chocolate into a force for tropical reforestation. Extraordinary chocolate requires exceptional cacao, and exceptional cacao requires healthy rainforests.” From The Dieline, designed by Design Army.
