It’s a time that’s resonant of a fresh start, a clean sheet; everything to play for, the possibilities of the long and winding road, ain’t no mountain high…
Well, you get my drift.
I was ever a complete pushover for the Letts School-Boys diary; a staple inclusion in my long-since discarded Christmas stocking. Even though the best intentions of those early January daily records would predictably give way to the carelessly smudged and abbreviated accounting of February, the increasingly skipped entries in March, and the careless and eventually total neglect from April onwards – until next year’s edition and a fresh round of budding optimism.
Resolution, of course, is the natural bed-fellow of optimism. January the first has all the healthier connotations of year zero about it and, hangover permitting, is the perfect morning out of the whole 366 (in 2012) on which to leap into action to transform challenges into opportunities.
So what’s on the to-do list for 2012 then? No doubt you glassmakers are resolved to use more cullet; you rigid and flexible plastic manufacturers less fossil-fuel derivative and something far more sugary or corny instead; you box-makers even more recycled content than you’re already packing in; you metal-bashers ironing out any remaining sharp edges. We’ll check up on your staying power come April.
Meanwhile, something a bit less tenuous but a lot more corporate to be resolute about improving upon: our often rubbishy public image. So set aside the usual codswallop and get back to basics: what is our purpose and are we fit enough to fulfil it? Even if the prediction of seven years of austerity proves to be more balls than crystal, you don’t have to be Mystic Meg to foresee that certain aspects of consumerism are going to fall out of favour.
That doesn’t mean to say that we won’t be looking to shop our way back into some semblance of a stable economy. We spent our way in so we’ll spend our way out – just that the how and the what will be taking on more significance than the why and the why the hell not.
Packaging that makes sense rather than simply appealing to some of the baser senses has the contemporary ring of credibility about it. That doesn’t mean to say that plain has more value than pretty; just that by extension we tack on to the latter the rider of smart.
The antithesis of years of dysfunction is staring us in the face; bringing in its wake the best chance of realigning perception with reality we’re ever likely to get and that’s long overdue. So, Letts make it a Happy New Year in every possible way and reap some lasting rewards.
Des King is a freelance journalist specialising in packaging. Send your comments for Des to packagingnews.editorial@metropolis.co.uk
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