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Designing the Fun Out of Smoking

By David Seliger - August 4, 2011

in Object Culture | Graphic Design

This new packaging concept for cigarettes from recent UK design graduates Jennifer Noon and Sarah Shaw is in response to the British government's controversial proposal for plain packaging, which purports that bland and generic cigarette packages devoid of company logos or art would make health warnings more prominent (which is not to say that the right kind of labels wouldn't be just as effective...)

Noon and Shaw's design changes the shape of the container into something that sticks out of pockets and is hard to get cigarettes out of—reminiscent of this design from last year. While this is certainly a 180° turn on conventional human-centered design where usage is paramount, we think it is actually represents human-centered design at its finest, putting the user's best interests above their desires.

Noon and Shaw describe the design of their imagery:

For the warning imagery we focused on aspects which would appeal to the users vanity, considering the primary market would be teenagers. We used more 'realistic' warning images such as yellowing fingernails and wrinkles, as our research revealed the majority of warnings were seen as being 'far fetched' and unbelievable.

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Dave Seliger

13 years ago

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@Jonathan - I'm sure government-sponsored beatings of smokers would help, but we've already seen some more realistic approaches that have helped. Look at smokers being forced out of restaurants and other public areas. Isn't turning smoking into a social faux-pas just as effective as beating you senseless?
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Jonathan Bagley

13 years ago

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As a smoker, I would say that this might make smokers less likely to quit and more likely to start. Since the smoking ban, I have certainly become more aggressive towards those I perceive as being anti smoker. If stopping people from smoking is so important, why not just encourage the public to give anyone they see smoking a savage beating. My consumption of cigarettes would halve were I only to smoke at home, or down alleys or behind piles of rubble on patches of wasteland.
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scott

13 years ago

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Seems to me that the influx of 'hinderance' packaging would only encourage an increase in procurement of refined cigarette cases. Since those won't be likely to be regulated in any form, it would be a small matter of tearing the smokes out of the packaging and loading them into a metal tin.

Not that what is being attempted here isn't a valid point, but this type of gesture is useless without some kind of governmental regulations requiring it, and even so people who might be offput by such images can easily just remove the offending packaging for something more convenient.
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Andrewwd

13 years ago

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The designers have imbued this packaging with a sense of 'designeryness' (the just-so typography, the neat stacking solution, the sanitised medical images), and because of this it doesn't work for me. The objective here should be to make the packaging devoid of design and thereby remove any sense that this is a desirable or convenient object. The 'cardboard origami' of cigarette packaging is part of the ritual of smoking; this should be denied to the consumer if the designer wishes to break their habits. Why not package them in a clear plastic bag? Or consider a vending solution that has no packaging at all?
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