When the L’Oréal Group was looking to launch a new look for Redken, they presented the challenge to Robert Bergman, founder of Bergman Associates Mpakt. The new range of 26 products, which launched in stores and salons in January, features the first three products premiering in a new interlocking jar, custom-designed for L’Oréal.

The new jar, proposed and created by Bergman, was inspired by the unique technology of Redken’s hair styling products which are especially formulated to be used together in sets of two and three—mixed and “layered” to achieve infinite hairstyles and textures. Taking that concept into consideration in the design, Bergman created a way to keep the products “interlocked” together. He says, “It was the perfect solution for styling products that are intended to be customized—a way of locking them together.”

The colorful new look for Redken’s new range of 26 products.

The redesign moves the product line from the brand’s historical silver packs to a new black pack color and uses metal foil typography to color-code a navigational system for the eight texture and style categories within the range: Blow Dry, Flex, Hairsprays, Heat Styling, Shine, Smooth, Texture and Volume. The new design also features both product names and category colors very prominently—a decision based on consumer research in salons and stores that concluded that customers remembered and used the names as well as numbers in shopping for and navigating the products. The numbers represent the “hold factor” of each unique product—more specifically, the amount of style-fixing ingredients in each product based on Redken’s range of hold-factor from 1 to 30.

Following is a discussion with Bergman about the package design details.

Beauty Packaging: What was your inspiration for the designs?

Jars and caps were designed with an interlocking system where the caps rotate on and off the jars and the stacking mechanism works independently, via insertion.

Robert Bergman: For design inspiration, I always first look to the heart of the brand to find that “something special” that can be celebrated—a point of reference that can be used to communicate the brand’s essence and message in the purest way possible. When it came to Redken, it was immediately clear that the most important element about the brand is that it is now the number one professional beauty brand. Finally, after 10 years of personally directing the creative of the brand to reach that status, it was the time to celebrate that awesome achievement—and what better way to do it than with the brand’s packaging. So the natural translation of that inspiration meant creating a new more sophisticated “face” for the brand. It was finally time for the brand to get to use its signature color, black, on its packaging— replacing the metallic silver that the products exist in now—along with a bolder, more powerful typographic design using maximum shelf impact and improved brand navigation.

BP: What challenges did you face in manufacturing as far as the interlocking jars?

All the typography and marketing had to be designed on the side of the jars.

RB: The interlock function posed an interesting challenge. After we proposed the interlocking-jar concept and everyone fell in love with the idea, we designed the jars and caps with a “click-lock” interlocking system where the caps rotate on and off the jars and the stacking mechanism works independently, via insertion—making it only possible to open the jars when they are unstacked. This system also has the added benefit of helping to hinder leakage and the unintentional opening of the jars during shipping and handling. But shortly after we had designed and fine-tuned all the elements, we learned that because of technical constraints and timing we had to change direction and redesign the interlocking jars using an existing cap. In the end, the only sacrifice was that we had to develop a friction lock for the jars in place of the “click” lock. It would have been nice to have that “click” but it simply wasn’t possible to have that “click” and meet the launch date.

BP: How exactly do the jars work—does the consumer have to remove the cap to screw it onto an additional product?

RB: Actually, the jars have hollow bases that accept the next jar’s lid. The lids aren’t removed to stack them.

BP: How are consumers made aware of this locking feature?

RB: The jars are being merchandised in stacked formation... and that means that all the typography and marketing needed to be designed on the side of the jar... not an easy feat for a jar with a small band of space for that. But, the great thing about professional products is that they aren’t “self service”—meaning that a salon professional works with each client to recommend products and while doing that, shows the customer how the products work, etc.—so it wasn’t necessary to have any separate instructions for stacking and locking. It worked out perfectly.

BP: What was the duration of this project—from concept to shelf?

RB: The duration of this line was amazingly fast. The initial designs went very quickly—we created the range in about two weeks. Then, as you can imagine, within the L’Oréal Group, the approval process can consist of numerous meetings and presentations both in the U.S. and Paris—but this design was a model of the approval process. The designs were approved all the way up the corporate hierarchy and blessed by L’Oréal’s CEO Jean Paul Agon on its initial presentation to him. Overall, from design to manufacture took an amazing six months.

BP: How do you think this will influence personal care/hair care packaging in general?

RB: Well, certainly this will “raise the bar” in the professional market... and for Redken, being the market leader, that was part of the brief—and that’s what makes designing packing so exciting and challenging for me.

BP: What are you working on now?

RB: At the moment, we’re in the process of opening a second office in São Paulo. The fashion and beauty market in Brazil is growing enormously—and as the former creative director of Brazil’s edition of Vogue magazine, it’s natural that I should take the opportunity to open a branch office there.

About the Designer

Bergman Associates and Mpakt are the creative firms of creative director, Robert Bergman. Before founding Bergman Associates, Bergman worked as creative directorof Vogue Brazil Magazine, art director for Fabien Baron at Baron and Baron Inc. and at Interview Magazine, and art director for internationally renowned musicians and composers including Ryuichi Sakamoto and David Byrne. Bergman also worked as vice president/creative director at the L’Oréal Group— becoming the first and only creative director to simultaneously work on multiple brands across multiple L’Oréal divisions. Bergman is the recipient of more than 40 international creative awards.