Yonwoo [1], a Korean manufacturer of packaging for the beauty industry, specialized in airless, has lifted the veil on its research and development. Separate from the rest of the organisation, the centre has its own budget and the authority and freedom to pursue ideas. It is dedicated solely to developing new concepts. With 11 designers, supported by 21 engineers, it comes up with 110 new packaging ideas a year.
“The concepts can follow a given theme or trend or can stem from a crazy idea by one of the designers,” explains export sales manager Daniel Cha. “That’s why they are teamed with engineers, to ensure it can be developed practically.”
Once a month, each designer presents one or two designs. These are evaluated according to a tried-and-tested Yonwoo recipe, taking into account trends, market demand, technical superiority, formula protection and ergonomics. A second evaluation round classifies whether the selected concepts are ripe for today’s or tomorrow’s market, or for some unspecified time in the future. As a result, around 15 fully-fledged products make it into the Yonwoo portfolio every year.
