Lasse Brunnström

Example of an ongoing research project

The (un)sustainable package

This is an interdisciplinary research project between art, humanities and logistics, based at HDK - School of Design and Crafts, University of Gothenburg. It has a critical focus on consumer packages and includes historical, gender, usability and sustainability perspectives. It is about visual communication and product development. The project is funded by The Jubilee Fund of the Swedish Central Bank and the Swedish Research Council. It began in 2009 and is planned to be completed in 2012.

We are living in a time of packaging hysteria. The package is becoming increasingly important as a marketing tool in our experience-based consumption. Several economical surveys indicate the importance of packaging design in consumer choice. While traditional advertising is decreasing communication by packaging becomes more important and also increases revenues. The future potential seems endless, at least from the producers point of view. However there are few reflections on what happens to the packages when they will get wasted, destructed, recycled, reused or just stored.

The project is focusing on three studies forming a packaging trilogy. The studies are about: milk packaging, pharmaceutical packaging and luxury packaging. The project members are:

Dr. Lasse Brunnström, project leader, teaches design history at HDK and several other Swedish design schools and has published books on e.g. Swedish industrial design, telephone design and most recently Swedish design history.
Contact: lasse.brunnstrom@hdk.gu.se

Dr. Karin Wagner is an art historian working as a senior lecturer at the IT University of Gothenburg. Research interests include photography, new media and visual communication.
Contact: karin.wagner@ituniv.se

Dr. Magdalena Petersson McIntyre, researcher at the Centre for Consumer Science at the University of Gothenburg. Research interests include identity, gender constructions and problematisation of the consumer society.
Contact: magdalena.petersson-mcintyre@cfk.gu.se

Dr. Annika Olsson, professor in packaging logistics at the Design Centre, University of Lund. Research interests include: user oriented packaging innovation and packaging development for a sustainable society. Contact: annika.olsson@plog.lth.se