SKINN (Student Project)

Designer: Ning Li
Project Type: Student Project
School: Pratt Institute
Materials: Brushed metal, clear glass, cork, silicone
Location: USA

Packaging is made to enrich the user’s experience and communicate the personality of products. Different senses play a vital role in ‘reading’ packages. Although we use sight as the primary sense in this, packaging is also held in the hands providing for opportunities for tactile communication. Form and materiality could be engaged more substantially to provide a more affective experience that communicates to the consumer.

Naming
The name Skinn refers to the tactual language. Skin represents a transition between the outsides and insides. Skin to a human body is an organ that receives tactile sensory information and protects against injury. The skins of an object, in other words, is the term – packaging that we use today. They are not only the physical layer of protection but also the point of interface with users; their surfaces convey the identity of an object and contain the experience of an object.

Material Swatches
Material possesses meanings. By touching or looking at a product, we will generate a universal understanding of the material. The hard, rough, or rigid characteristic was usually perceived as the masculine type. The smoothness, softness, and lightness features are the symbol of the feminine. Some materials’ meanings relate to an environment instead of the appearance. This type of materials would be considered as the category of gender-neutral.