Interview with Damien Moyal

ScorCreative at Amcor is the design studio located within the celebrated Amcor Rigid Plastics R&D and Innovation Center. Amcor is a global packaging supplier, and ARP is a division that develops and produces blow-molded plastic packaging. Our studio serves world-class food, beverage, spirits, personal care and household care brands by acting as either the primary agency to the brand, or as consultant to the agency.

Problem solving.

I have become quite partial to structural packaging design.

My favorite design is actually still in concept development, so I can't speak in great detail about it, but it's for a client of Amcor's who is looking for game-changing innovation in the Ready-To-Drink alcoholic beverage space, and this design combines several developmental technologies to provide consumers with an experience previously only available in a bar or pub. Nothing like it exists in market today.

A t-shirt!

Perhaps because it's my focus these days, but I really enjoy blow-molded plastics. They're lightweight and versatile, and have so many recyclable applications.

In the middle of the day, just after lunch.

I tend to first emphasize the silhouette itself. If the overall design doesn't have strong, confident form, any other details built into the structure seem forced, mechanical and out of place.

Because we often work with established brands, I try to align myself with the brand’s spirit and promise, to deliver something meaningful to their audience. I want to satisfy, if not create, desire.

It's incredible to be in the supermarket and pick up and hold a package that began with a stroke of the pen on paper. It's even more fulfilling to know that the design is proving successful to the client and to the end user.

Design should simplify a proposition. It should organize noise and cut through clutter, to help a great brand tell a great story. But most of all it should meet or exceed the business objectives that compelled it.

Is it simple and easy to use? Is the value and concept accessible, or do I have to work to figure it out?

Designers should always be cognizant of the materials and energy used for their applications, and always look to reduce both. I am lucky enough at ScorCreative to operate under Amcor's strict sustainability platform, as the organization is vehemently dedicated to innovations that allow for material reductions (lightweighting) and other technologies that result in lower carbon footprints.

When it comes to fast-moving consumer goods, we are starting to see more and more in-home systems for flavor customization of food and beverage, which creates a new packaging opportunity: Packaging to take the product FROM home, rather than TO home, and the design community will need to be ready to accommodate and innovate.

The brands we work with and for are the inspiration, as are their particular audience and the audience's needs and lifestyles. Traveling keeps my gears turning, as well as reviewing other things happening in the marketplace, or in adjacent marketplaces.

I like strong but fluid lines - like sweeping, gestural, brush strokes - but punctuated with an element that celebrates or exaggerates a feature that enhances the brand or a function.

I live in the USA, in Ann Arbor, Michigan. We're pretty close to Detroit, and I think that grit sometimes shows through in design.

ScorCreative works either as the agency working with a marketing team or brand owner on our client's side, or as a consultancy to agencies tasked with a packaging design project but lacking in technical expertise. My role is quite front-end at the concept and strategy stage.

Look for proof! Not just in design quality, but in the business implications or impact of the designs they have commercialized.

When we receive a design brief from the client, I will look to see what's missing, or perhaps what's erroneous. Occasionally we may challenge a few items in the brief, and typically the client supports these perspectives. We start a discovery phase where we research the competitive landscape, the cultural inputs, and the consumer's behaviors, and we start generating concepts. The first round is always in 2D (sketches), and we present a carefully curated selection to the client. When they hone in on a few of the concepts, we move those into 3D and rendering, and continue to tighten up details as we narrow down to a final design.

(1) Vitra Verner Panton Chair, (2) Royal Holland KMD pewter coffee/tea set with teak handles, (3) a set of Colorstone plates and cups by Massimo Vignelli for Sasaki, (4) a mid-century modern desk that I've never been able to identify or find any maker's mark, and (5) a mid-century modern end table with a drawer that I've also never been able to identify or find any maker's mark

Always, always, always start with a sketch.

The biggest positive is seeing things you created - ideas born in your head - actualized and working for the business and the user intended. The big negative would be that there's a lot of emotion attached to ideas, and no matter how professional a designer may be, seeing an idea die always stings a little.

Never design for the sake of design.

Understanding the business you serve, and understanding that design is indeed a business function, is something many designers miss. Develop a deep understanding of the less romantic components, like manufacturing, cost and operations. Your designs will be better informed, and your organization will take you more seriously.

I mainly use a pen and paper. Because I work more on the front-end, conceptual phase of a project, my work is typically sketched. I then work alongside another designer to bring these concepts to 3D. We use various 3D software like Rhino, SolidWorks, Catia and others, and a proprietary mixture of rendering applications.

Respecting the process and the stage gates at the end of each phase is crucial. So is coffee.

Much depends on the client's involvement. Sometimes a project can go all the way from discovery to concept iteration to a final design that is ready to be released to the Product Development team in just three weeks, and then there are times where the process takes a year.

"How long will that take?"

I'm in the middle of it!

PepsiCo, Campbell Soup Company, Starbucks, Captain Morgan Rum, The Coca-Cola Company and many others.

I really have become quite partial to structural packaging design. It's necessary for product protection, and there are so many opportunities to innovate and create responsible and sustainable packaging that's great for the client and their consumer.

Hopefully working on a project that wins an A' Design Award next year!

As a team. Although I do much more concepting and strategy, at some point or another I will need to work with another design to translate my concepts into actual 3D models, and often that designer and I will collaboratively refine the design as new variables (such as volumetrics or dimensional constraints) present themselves.

Unfortunately, anything in-progress is confidential. But I assure it's all really cool stuff!

I can be contacted directly at damien.moyal@amcor.com or through the studio at scor.creative@amcor.com

No, that about covers it! Thanks for your time, and we hope you hear much more from us in the future.