Seymourpowell Puts A Twist On A Classic Tale

04 Feb 2014

New aerosol body spray can designed for Unilever personal care brand, Axe. Leading global design and innovation company Seymourpowell is pleased to announce details of its design of ‘Icon 2’ - the new aerosol body spray for Unilever personal care brand, Axe - known as Lynx in the UK. The existing Axe aerosol, designed by Seymourpowell in 2005, called ‘Neutron’ has been very successful in the market for seven years and whilst Unilever remained fully confident with the strength of the design and the Axe brand, there was an emergent need to stay ahead of the competition by securing the design for the “next generation” of body sprays. Having won the pitch to reinvent the classic deodorant can in 2011, there were many challenges in the brief to overcome. The new ‘Icon2’ aerosol design had to be iconic, unique, sophisticated yet youthful, engaging, intuitive and uncomplicated. In keeping with the emergent design language for consoles, gaming, mobiles and MP3 players, Axe Icon2’s form is purer, more monolithic and sophisticated. Developing the existing emotional qualities of Axe – humour, sexual attraction and masculinity - and expressing them in the physical form, the design team created a development of the original ‘Neutron’ can twist action.

When not in use, the button on Icon2 is flush with the top, and the action is locked. Twisting the top engages a sophisticated ‘mechanical ballet’ of movement, which lifts the button up and then inclines it backwards into the ready to use position. As the button rises, it reveals a flash of color specific to the variant. This ‘mechanical ballet’ is not only very practical, but also intriguing - on the one hand effectively locking the spray and, on the other counter-intuitively lifting up the button in order to it press down. This action gives the product a sense of fascination, delight, playfulness and emotional engagement, which are at the heart of the Axe brand. The uniquely round to square formed can sets new standards in aerosol shaping technology - can and actuator flow seamlessly together in this ‘round to square’ form which is very pure, visually simple and above all, confident while providing a broad canvas for the fragrance variant graphics to communicate. Icon 2 has come to market without compromise, solving huge challenges on the way. It sets up the brand for the future and so it had to have a quality, more premium feel more precise and robust in the hand, with a reassuring solidity consistent with a more premium product. It is a huge credit to Unilever’s engineering team, and to DCA who worked with them, that this has been achieved.

Ketan Mistry, senior designer at Seymourpowell explains the challenges involved: “Delivering a new iconic form for an established brand such as Axe/Lynx was always going to be difficult especially when the existing (Neutron) pack has been so successful. We worked very closely with the team at Unilever to develop a pack that would meet the technical constraints and sustainability targets. The desire to make this product more engaging than any other pack on the market and conform to the Axe/Lynx brand DNA was the real challenge”. Michal Berski, Axe Global Brand Manager, Unilever, said, “We can see that the world is changing, and our Axe users are evolving. And because we are a leader, not a follower, we see it as our responsibility to stay a step ahead of future trends and break the conventions of our category. This is how we keep our brand and product fresh and relevant for our audience. It’s not easy to create an icon, but that’s exactly what Seymour Powell has helped us achieve. Our new sophisticated, monolithic pack absolutely embodies our brand values, and will become the brand’s unique signature.” The new Axe ‘Icon2’ can is available in stores throughout the UK, priced at an RRP of £3.29 for 150ml and £3.89 for 200ml.

Source: Seymourpowell