Interviewing Íngrid Picanyol to understand how packaging design is also a tool for inclusion and against gender inequality

We have learned, with humility from the great Toni Miserachs, that graphic design will not save the world; that the responsibility for communicating a message remains, to a large extent, in the hands of the professionals who design is a fact that cannot be overlooked.

Our partner Íngrid Picanyol, one of the most awarded designers in the latest edition of Laus, has this in mind in every project. And so, with will, generosity, and demand, we help move the obsolete limits of our social tradition towards improvement.

How would you define yourself (to those who don’t know you professionally)?

I am a photographer, graphic designer and creative director who is passionate about working with clients with a vision for the future, who understand the power and impact they can have with their projects.

I mainly develop projects that involve building brands from the ground up and holistically through visual identity, packaging, web design and photography. Although all my projects are tailored to the specific needs of each client, I always try to present an exercise where business goals align with innovation, and from a fresh, inclusive, and environmentally responsible perspective.

I founded my own studio seven years ago in the district of Gràcia, in Barcelona, ​​after working in various studios and living in cities such as New York and Mexico City.

Can packaging express gender inequalities? How?

Yes, the design of a packaging can continue to perpetuate gender inequalities. Those proposals that continue to make use of graphic and chromatic stereotypes associated with men or women are complicit. If in addition the language is not inclusive, doubly complicit. And finally, if we don’t question the significance of everything that appears in the photograph that presents the product to the world, we run the risk of being triple complicit.

Such decisions are especially dangerous when we are in the context of the beauty or fashion industry. Two industries that, on too many occasions, continue to take advantage and profit from what, to me, is still the main problem: the lack of self-esteem in women.

On several occasions I have decided to turn down an order because the brand’s strategy behind the product still wanted to make future buyers believe that product was the solution to all their problems. By this I do not mean that facial creams, for example, should cease to exist, but that what is needed is to loosen the amount of power that personal image has towards people’s freedom.

What are your influences and references in the packaging design sector?

Since my beginnings I have been an absolute admirer of all the work that Dieter Rams did for Braun. I also remember in 2015 I was very impressed by Byredo’s perfume bottle.

There are many graphic design studios that have obviously helped me fall in love with this discipline. Packaging that at the time impressed me a lot:

•  The Cantamanyanes wine, by Enserio.

• Imprimerie du Marais Notebook II, by Deutsche & Japaner.

• The Fleur Tang boxes for children, by Homework.

• Domènech Vidal’s Cultivare 2013 wine labels, by Ladyssenyadora.

• Lemonades Lemonade, by The Studio.

• The legendary bottles of Sriracha or Tabasco sauce.

You have worked for cosmetic and fashion brands. Your designs stand out for breaking traditional men and women’s colour ranges, the most exploited stereotypes of men’s products and women’s products. How do you approach the idea for a perfume or cream design? How do you transfer it to your customers?

I investigate the competition and/or everything that has been done within the sector to try not to repeat resources, so the proposal looks different from the rest. If they have approached me with the aim of standing out in a particular context, I think it is especially important to start here and therefore I pass on to them this first strategy.

At the same time, I wonder what context that product will live in, how the people who will consume it are, what worries them, or how this product could improve their lives. There are times when the opportunity is minimal, and sometimes when the opportunity is very great. In any case, I subject any project to these kinds of questions. With my job, I long to be able to bring about some positive change in the world, no matter how small.

Almost every time I have shared this personal research and motivation with clients, they have celebrated and appreciated the approach.

Tell us about fragrances 27 87. What customer did you have in front of you?

Romy Kowalewski proposed the 27 87 project to me in 2015 and it has been the first case study where, little by little, I was able to holistically develop a whole brand. From visual identity and perfume bottles, to packaging, the website or art direction in photography and video.

The briefing that was initially presented to me pointed in a completely opposite direction to which we know the brand today. It was asked that each bottle be completely different and that the design and finishes connected with that baroque and classic image that many people have of luxury products. What ended up being was a uniform and timeless collection of white bottles with a very minimalist typographic exercise.

It could really be an entire novel to explain the whole journey that the brand and the study have made together. When we met, we were both embarking on our professional projects. With only an age gap of a year, we were overwhelmed with enthusiasm and lacked experience, and besides a lot of learning, the project allowed us to experience the ups and downs that any long professional relationship also entails.

Today, and after almost seven years, I’m still in charge of all the brand’s creativity and the truth is that the project is in a very bright moment.

Tell us about Goa Organics. From what position do you work in their art and design direction?

The Goa Organics project has things in common with the 27 87 project. On the one hand, the founder of the brand decided to contact me after investigating who was behind the design of the 27 87 project. And on the other, the initial briefing in which it came to the study pointed in the opposite direction to what I consider, after researching the context and the target, is the most appropriate for their project.

Instead of white packaging with minimalist black typography, I proposed a line of packaging of saturated colours with a large typographic presence. The initial strategy is none other than to contrast with other products in the sector and break with the serious and boring spirit of the hair industry.

The audience they want to conquer are people with an adolescence marked by the 90s. That is why I proposed an art direction in photography full of references from that time and thus play with the empathy and nostalgia all this imagery awakens in this audience.

Another important decision was to incorporate a model that had a fully shaved head. The aim and message of the decision was none other than to communicate that Goa makes hair products but does not defend one aesthetic canon over another. Besides, shaved people wash their heads too, right?

What can be done with a customer who thinks they are breaking with stereotypes, such as pink-blue, condemns them not to sell?

I would explain to them that fortunately the paradigm is changing and that if their project does not, people will stop buying it.

What is the main challenge of packaging design now?

Attract the looks with the least possible packaging.