The written word

Communication and presentation have become part and parcel of Jon’s career.
He has written articles on design for the packaging press, reviewed products and has
been featured in Channel 4’s “Design and Make It” series for schools – part of their Design
& Technology programme. Whilst in Korea he gave lectures at Design Schools in Seoul and
in Tehran advised and coached brand managers in the role of design in the packaging mix.

His involvement in Tai Chi has led to being a Guest Lecturer and Instructor for P&O Cruises,
judging at the British Open Tai Chi Chuan Competitions and giving a Tai Chi presentation
at London’s Retirement Show.

A few examples…

ARTICLES
Soap, Perfumery and Cosmetics (Extract)
“Protect. Contain. Inform. Whilst these fundamental principles may not have changed, the tools at a designer’s disposal are constantly being developed and refined. But before thoughts can turn to how the product may appear, the designer needs to have an appreciation of the brand itself – its proposition, its personality, and its benefits. Who is the audience? Who is going to buy the product and under what circumstances? Self selected or assisted?
Some years ago while working on shape development for a shampooing product, I requested samples of the product to place around the bathroom at home. The brand manager’s curiosity was naturally aroused. The designer wanted to get acquainted with the product in the appropriate setting, and fast, because unlike the brand manager who knew his product very well, the designer had only just come into contact with it.
Potentially one of the most disconcerting yet stimulating features of packaging design for toiletries today is the erosion or elasticity of category equities. Generally this is a visual frame of reference in which certain products sit – soap powders in boxes, biscuits in packets and so on. Every so often a technical development or novel product design breaks new ground – witness the move to liquid detergents and concentrates or the brilliant toilet duck.
Nowhere more so than in C&T goods is the visual language of particular categories under continual development. It may well be because at the upper end, i.e. fine fragrance, the medium really is the message; the package is the art form…”

PRODUCT REVIEW
Soap, Perfumery and Cosmetics (Extract)
“Emporio Armani - He / She
The delight of the new fragrance from Emporio Armani begins the moment you set eyes on the outer packaging. The use of flow wrap instead of the more usual cellophane marks an intriguing difference, a reference to a more accessible style of merchandising. With subtlety and soft colouring, dark for the male and light for the female, the two packs are identically opposite and complementary, the text and symbols denoting the difference. Remove this, and the box is revealed; devoid of text and simply reflecting gender difference through colour.
We are getting close; inside rests the article itself. A beautifully smooth cylinder of satin aluminium breaking at its top surface into a matt rubber actuator pad. The colouring difference is now gently emphasised by a slight difference in form; right at the point of use it curves out for him and in for her. Yin and Yang meet urban chic.
Highly portable, discreet and pleasurably tactile, the two packs together naturally fit and are beautifully executed from start to finish. If the story holds true they should both be out and about during the day coming to rest together at night to recharge in the style of the Armani mobile phone.”

LECTURE
From a lecture concerning the influences on Tai Chi – P&O Cruises (Extract)
“Yin and Yang; philosophy or reality?
Looking at the Yin/Yang symbol, this talk will attempt to uncover what lies behind this Taoist philosophy and what practical benefit it can offer us today. Rooted in Taoist philosophy, Yin and Yang represent the opposing yet complementary forces of Heaven and Earth. Heaven (Yang) is above, Earth (Yin) is below; Humanity lies in between living out its existence amidst the interplay. Whilst Chinese in origin, this understanding of nature is not exclusive to the East.
The 19thC American Humanist writer Ralph Waldo Emerson was struck with the idea and expressed his thoughts in the essay entitled Compensation.
“Polarity, or action and reaction, we meet in every part of nature; in darkness and light; in heat and cold; in the ebb and flow of waters; in male and female; in the inspiration and expiration of plants and animals; in the equation of quantity in the fluids of the animal body; in the systole and diastole of the heart; in the undulations of fluids, and of sound; in the centrifugal and centripetal gravity; in electricity, galvanism and chemical affinity. Superinduce magnetism at one end of a needle; the opposite magnetism takes place at the other end. If the south attracts, the north repels. To empty here, you must condense there. An inevitable dualism bisects nature, so that each thing is a half, and suggests another thing to make it whole; as, spirit, matter; man, woman; odd, even; subjective, objective; in, out; upper, under; motion, rest; yea, nay.
He then goes on to develop the idea further...
However, what had caught his perception was an understanding that is first documented about 3,000 years ago in the Chinese Book of Changes known as the “I Ching”. The term Tai Chi first appears in Chinese literature in Appendix III to the I Ching, a book used for divination, dating from the Zhou dynasty (circa 1027-221BC). It states:

Therefore the I (changes) has Tai Chi,
It gives birth to the two forms (Yin & Yang)

The term Tai Chi is inextricably linked with Yin and Yang because it means “supreme ultimate” and expresses the idea of the union of Yin and Yang as seen in the Tai Chi Tu or symbol. This reference in the I Ching therefore dates Tai Chi to around 200BC at the latest. Tai Chi Chuan, the practice, is at best a marriage of these three forces, the martial, the therapeutic and the philosophical. For myself and many others who practice it, its appeal lies in the fact that it balances the physical and dynamic with the spiritual and intellectual.
So, to return to the Tai Chi symbol; the expression of Yin and Yang. The earliest records seem to indicate a simple circle. This has a logic to it, since once we have a circle there is an inside and an outside; what is enclosed and what is not; what is circular and what is not: there is Yin and there is Yang…”

CREDITS: Images supplied by www.bigphoto.com / Website designed by www.pagevinedesign.com