Poetry-inspired packaging: Beautea hones in on Chinese tea traditions

29 Jun 2020 --- Packaging design draws inspiration from varied sources such as colors, materials, and more recently, 11th-century Chinese poetry. With this in mind, Beautea, a conceptual tea box design created for a local holiday market vendor in Taiwan, uses abstract floral elements to bring a more “poetic mood to packaging.” Each box can be customized per tea flavor using stickers with finely printed floral patterns, adding an extra touch of “elegance” and “aesthetic.”

“The original inspiration comes from a poem by the Chinese poet Su Shi called “從來佳茗似佳人” (Never Like Jiaming), which compares different flavors of tea to women with different styles. In the process, I was mainly thinking about how to visualize and ‘totemize’ the elegance of women, and to simplify the visual design of packaging to a poetic and Zen degree,” Lung-Hao Chiang, Beautea’s concept graphic designer, shares with PackagingInsights.

Click to EnlargeThe original inspiration comes from a poem by the Chinese poet Su Shi , which compares different flavors of tea to women with different styles.The packaging is indeed minimalist by design: While the box depicts a handleless teacup placed in the palm of a long-fingered black hand, the individual tea bag wrappings themselves illustrate female portraits void of any facial features save the lips. Doing so preserves space for imagination, “just as everyone has a different interpretation of Hamlet,” Chiang notes, referring to art’s ability to elicit different interpretations.

In both the upper right- and left-hand corners, the front-of-pack reads 茗, the Chinese character for “tea,” below the gold-glossy Beautea label. Meanwhile, the back of the packaging details the product’s content in four lines of gold-ink print to keep the visuals “elegant and clean.”

The colored box is made with metallic inks and screen printing while the tea-leaf stick uses digital printing and is partially exposed to aluminum foil. For the boxes to simulate parchment, Chiang made use of 350 g of white cotton card. PackagingInsights previously reported on how textile and sensory packaging is becoming increasingly popular in premium packaging.

Floral stickers for customization
The box itself remains the same, but to distinguish different tea flavors, Chiang makes use of rectangular decorative printed stickers. Placed below the wrist of the black hand, the sticker resembles Cheongsam, a type of feminine body-hugging dress with distinctive Chinese features of Manchu origin. Click to Enlarge“I wanted to add a sense of Shanghai in the 1930s, which is a combination of Chinese aesthetics and modernity, into the display,” Chiang details. 

“I wanted to add a sense of Shanghai in the 1930s, which is a combination of Chinese aesthetics and modernity, into the display” Chiang details. Adhering to the minimalist theme, the white “hem” of the floral sleeves state only the name of each tea in Chinese and English.

Minimalism has been a central source of inspiration across the liquid packaging sector, ranging from The Naked Collective’s health drinks filled in 33 cl aluminum cans to premium oat milk lattes from botanical beverage brand LaDiDa. Italian Pietra dei Venti’s monochromatic minimalist designs for its olive oil has also expanded the notion of how targeted aesthetic appeal stands out on shelf and attracts consumers.  

Currently, Beautea is not sold in large quantities but rather a concept design made in small quantities. For any interested cooperative brands on the horizon, Chiang says they are “very welcome.”

By Anni Schleicher

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