Gold Packaging Design · 2022
The Pompadour Packaging
by Ivie China
- A' Design Award 2022 Gold Winner in Packaging Design
- Awarded April 15, 2022
- CLIENT: Ivie
- Estimated Number of Design Views: 37,615
- Verification code 4A0CEAC85F · Verify this award
About The Pompadour Packaging
The Pompadour is a fragrance packaging design inspired by the classic English barbershop. The outer box uses a checkered pattern drawn from barbershop floors, and the leather box opens in a way that recalls sitting in a barber chair. The bottle is a clear glass cylinder with vertical grooves, and a red, white and blue helix rotates as the bottle is unscrewed. A printed sheet in a serif font presents product information in the style of an old newspaper. The bottle holds a refillable capsule, and the outer packaging is made of recyclable materials.
Ivie China's The Pompadour Packaging presents a remarkable synthesis of heritage craft traditions and contemporary industrial design, evoking the ritualistic elegance of traditional grooming establishments through its distinctive material vocabulary and chromatic symbolism. The vessel's diamond-knurl surface texture references precision metalworking traditions associated with fine instrumentation, watchmaking, and automotive engineering, suggesting an object designed for tactile pleasure as much as visual appreciation, inviting the hand to engage with its machined topography. The tricolor stripe motif functions as a powerful cultural signifier, immediately conjuring associations with the rotating poles and striped imagery historically emblematic of barbershop culture, thus positioning the fragrance within a narrative of masculine grooming rituals, camaraderie, and attention to personal presentation. The compositional staging demonstrates sophisticated art direction sensibilities, incorporating the bow tie as a secondary element that reinforces themes of formal elegance and sartorial consciousness while the printed card provides contextual narrative through its carefully orchestrated typographic hierarchy. One might observe how the designer has achieved a delicate balance between reverence for heritage traditions and contemporary minimalist restraint, allowing the vessel's sculptural presence and material refinement to communicate luxury without excessive ornamentation. The choice of silver metallic finish rather than gold suggests understated confidence over ostentatious display, aligning with contemporary masculine aesthetic preferences for refined subtlety. The textural dialogue between machined precision and organic material references invites contemplation of craft traditions in an age of mass production, perhaps suggesting that certain rituals of self-care deserve objects of commensurate care and intention. How might the tactile experience of handling such an object enhance the daily ritual of fragrance application, transforming mundane routine into mindful ceremony?
Press Kit
- Unique Properties
- The Box – Have a seat on the barber chair.
Inspired by barbershop checkered floor opening leather box feels like seating on barber chair.
The Bottle – The memory of walking into the barber shop.
Inspired by the classic barber pole the Pompadour comes in a clear glass cylinder featuring vertical grooves and true to an actual barber pole the red and white and blue helix rotates as the bottle is unscrewed open.
The Sheet – Share today topic.
Designed as old style newspaper containing product information and profile. A serif font makes it feel authentic to an actual newspaper. - Dimensions & Packaging
- Outter Box : Width 120mm x Depth 90mm x Height 250mm
Bottle : Width 55mm x Height 185mm
Sheet : Width 75mm x Height 120mm - Tags
- Ivie, Perfume, Cologne, Packaging Design, Design, Sustainable
- Production Technology
- Sustainability is at the core of packaging design the glass cylinder bottle comes with a refillable capsule that can easily be removed and replaced and the outer packaging is made of recyclable materials.
- Design Challenge
- The brand owner wanted to launch a fragrance brand that will capture a niche market of professional white collars who only want to have the best for themselves.
Hence, we created a luxurious high end product with a discerning product name (Pompadour) that not only befits these connoisseurs but a product packaging (bottle and outerbox) that delivers a unique brand experience to our consumers. - Project Duration
- The project started in September 2020 in Shanghai, China and Finished in October 2021.
- Operation Flow
- Brand Owner: Provided a clear brief to the Agency with specific objectives and target audience that enabled a smooth collaborative process for the team to work efficiently within limited budget. Decision maker and budget controller to ensure that the packaging design met their objectives and aesthetic will appeal to the target audience.
Strategist: Conducted thorough research to understand the market and category to identify key insights that will inspire our designers and copywriter.
Designers and Copywriter: Provided product naming and unique design solutions that fully delivers against brand owner’s brief.
Engineering Team: led decisions on structure and materials. Was able to source for premium quality material that lived up to the product’s high end proposition and our designers vision despite limited budget.
Printer: Achieving these saturated colors and color accuracy on paperboard required extra cooperation between designers and printer. - Research
- The product is luxurious and sophisticated with a premium pricing. Hence the core target consumers are the sophisticated male white collars aged 35 and above, and currently based in Tier 1 cities in China. They continuously seek experiences that will help project them as being sophisticated and in the know.
From our research on this segment we found that this group of gentlemen like going to the barbershop to have their hair fixed.
Since the launch of The Pompadour into the market. The brand had received high publicity and attention from social KOLs and category product reviewers.
Multiple high end barbershops have also knocked on the brand owners door to seek collaboration with offers to display and feature the product within their retail store. - Inspiration
- From the late 18th to mid 19th century the barbershop was not just a place for gentlemen to procure a haircut or a shave. It was a space where fraternities were formed. The Pompadour was envisioned to capture that unique experience of going to a classic English barbershop.
The Pompadour is the gentlemans pocket companion. It is a fragrance that reminds him of a time when men were afforded a luxurious den of sorts. - Image Credits
- All photo credits to Ivie China
- Patents
- N/A