Packaging design

History

While the esthetic of the first kerosene and gas cans is rather simple, a great concern for presentation emerged toward the end of the 19th century in the smaller capacity containers.

Designed with particular care is the packaging for oil, for the containers had to convince the customer to spend more in comparison to the bulk product, and at the same time to prefer it to that of the com petition.

These containers betray a great desire to dazzle, to capture attention with easy and suggestive forms, in keeping with a philosophy of packaging that was both aggressive and ingenious.

It’s interesting to follow the evolution over time of these logos and images, realized generally with the technique of lithography on tin: although each of the various national contexts had its own traits, they all tended toward communicative efficacy, rejecting descriptive solutions in favor of more synthetic and striking ones, sometimes resulting in genuine masterpieces of graphic design.