Packaging look: Amorepacific wins iF Design Award 2018

South Korean conglomerate, Amorepacific adds the iF Design Award 2018 to its list of accolades for its Arita Heiti font, making it a hat-trick.

The beauty and cosmetics powerhouse has won the iF(International Forum) Design Award 2018 for the Communication Design Typeface subcategory with its ‘Arita Heiti’ font.

Three prestigious awards

As well as its iF Design Awards, Amorepacific’s choice of font, Arita Heiti, has received a total of three global design awards including Germany’s Red Dot Design Award 2017 and the US Communication Arts Award 2018.

Recognised by art directors and influential designers, the prestigious awards help to raise the brand awareness of Amorepacific’s product range to create an identifiable and recognisable name that distinguishes itself from its competitors.

Emanating from the Chinese ‘Arita’ font, Arita Heiti was first created in 2005 to reflect Amorepacific's brand identity. Presenting a “gentle and modern feel” the width of the font’s letter strokes is “consistent without any decorative curved ends”. At the same time, the company explained that it represents the “contemporary women’s beauty that Amorepacific pursues”, the company stated.

Packaging impact

"I am pleased that our efforts in trying to offer special experience to our customers through differentiated design has been recognised with a world-renown award,” stated Heo Jungwon, Head of Design Center at Amorepacific.

“We will further our efforts in delivering customer-centric values that we pursue through creative and beautiful design.”

In total, Amorepacific also provides three different language fonts – Korean, Chinese, English – including the Korean fonts (Arita Dotum and Arita Buri), English fonts (Arita Sans) and the Arita Heiti.

Profits down

While its international presence is boosted by the distinguished and celebrated design placed on all of its packaging, the company’s 2017 group summary results have suffered in the last year.

Both its sales and operating profits were down, potentially the result of fewer tourists visiting Korea in 2017. The Group’s sales reached KRW 6.0291 tn (€4.5 bn), representing a loss of 10.0% year-on-year. With its operating profit at KRW 90.3 bn (€67.9 mn), this represents a significant decrease of 32.4% year-on-year.

Upcoming expansion

When it comes to the APAC market, Amorepacific gets ready to launch its water science-based technology cosmetics brand, Laneige, in Sephora in Australia in March 2018.

Renowned K-beauty brand, Hera, will also release its range of cosmetics products in Singapore in April.

Overall, Amorepacific Group will concentrate on growing its innovative global products to optimise customer experience, as well as increasing its digital infrastructure to move towards achieving sustainable growth.