Tube design – creativity and retro style

The expression ‘retro’ stands for a cultural phenomenon of our times which takes up memories of past decades in different ways, from everyday life products to music and of course fashion. 

Make everything as simple as possible – but not simpler… (Albert Einstein). For the packaging designer the choice of aluminium tubes has one great advantage: He gets easy access to a perfect material fulfilling all product needs . It doesn’t matter if the content is sensitive, aggressive or perishable. There is no differentiation between food, pharmaceutical, cosmetic or chemical products necessary. The unique material characteristics of this special lightweight metal make a decision in favour of the aluminium tube easy and conclusive. The aluminium tube is light, gas- and aroma-tight, a perfect barrier to light, corrosion-resistant, attractive and recyclable. Thus, numerous quality aspects of a sophisticated packaging material are fulfilled. In other words: the aluminium tube is the only all-purpose packaging means.

Especially for people who have to be creative by profession, the view back is always interesting. These people, mostly designers, refer to older shapes and colours, not because they have no new ideas, but with regard to the customers’ wishes for the retro feel and look. The main characteristic of this style is the interpretation of old designs in a modern way and furthermore the combination with new design elements, thus developing a mixture of futuristic and retro style. Talking of the packaging industry and especially the tube producers, the ‘retro wave’ plays a certain role as well. It is obvious that considering retro aspects should not result in going back to old-fashioned tube materials like lead or tin. To combine modern packaging technology with retro elements, the retro feel is created through printing. Even tubes for new products refer to retro styles like Art Nouveau. Besides the retro trend in packaging design, it is also interesting to see how creative modern design can be. That includes filling goods which have not been packed in tubes so far as well as new closures and shapes. Good examples are tubes with angles or sophisticated closures for exact and clean application of pharmaceutical products. Another, often forgotten aspect is the tube as an ideal for the design of other packaging materials. The reason why a big company producing cosmetics filled its fragrance in a glass flacon shaped like a tube is evident: the shape of the tube appeals to the designer’s eye due to its fancy and timeless design.