Just taking a deeper dive into our previous trend report “Top 3 Packaging Design Trends Shaping Up For 2019”, we’ve decided to break it up into 3 separate issues: Material Honesty, Rethinking Retail Packaging and Creative Production.
Today we are focusing on Material Honesty, outlining what to consider when selecting materials for retail packaging or product packaging. With so many choices, we understand the confusion and the difficulty brands have in selecting the right materials for their brand packaging. Today we’re seeing the negative impacts of unsorted recycling; China’s National Sword policy, for one, has reduced the amount of recycled materials the U.S. is able to export. Recyclers are having to incinerate or landfill much of what’s being collected around the country. We’re happy to hear the positive discussions happening around the #PlasticStrawBan and the efforts to reduce plastic in packaging. We’re also seeing many brands take responsibility for their packaging, removing it from curbside collected waste streams. The future of packaging is just getting started. So let’s dive into materials and how substrates are informing this packaging design trend.