I wrote this article before the lockdown. Even though I couldn’t say we’re better off now, there’s something to it. When I read what I wrote again, I realize how fast our pace of life is.

These days of global confinement are showing us many things that we may have already known and forgotten or been distracted by.

I wanted to leave the text as I had written it and share my conclusions at the end of the article.

A message comes in from Whatsapp, one more for tonight’s football. I didn’t call my mom to tell her where we’re having the meeting. New notification; Fernando answered the email I sent him. I have to finish writing this article but I can’t concentrate.

I may not be Millennial, or GenZ, or Alpha, but every time I feel what they say happens to me. The lifestyle I have leads me to be aware of many things at once and to be less and less patient with some of them.

I guess this is happening to me to a greater or lesser extent, too. So much access to immediacy makes the thought of waiting for something annoying. They tell you that you have to breathe to calm down. Yeah, you’re allowed to take a deep breath now and keep reading.

For every problem there is an opportunity.

Many have realized that we have gone way overboard. That’s why Apps have already been created to help us relax with our smartphones in hand, and stress ourselves out again with the new notifications we receive.

To enjoy the serenity, products were also created that promise to help us achieve the so “desired” (what a paradox!) inner peace.

The promise of happiness contained in the packaging has to be translated through visual resources on the outside. This way we know where to find what we are looking for.

There is a marked tendency characterized by products with a visually relaxed design style where simplicity is the key to communicate much with little, and also to differentiate from the competition. It has a bit of minimalism, or essentialism, but with another look.

Pastel colors that could be interpreted as synonymous with bland taste in food, in this case are responsible for communicating a breeze of calm. In general, the background is a great colorful plenary where an austere graphic structure is supported in which the centered compositions that represent the balance reign.

Symmetry helps to have a quick interpretation of the elements, because neither by looking for the relaxation we are going to stop communicating the necessary in the smaller possible time. We want to relax but not to waste time.

Time is always invested, not lost.

I never considered myself anxious, but I feel closer and closer to that. I believe that this culture of the immediate is a double-edged sword and that is why it is necessary to bring down a change and consciously choose what to do and what not to do.

Each one decides consciously or unconsciously how to use time depending on the degree of satisfaction that we get from what we do as time goes by. That’s why I realized that I had to write shorter and shorter, write sentences in between to catch the reader in less time. I don’t know if I’m succeeding now, but I hope you keep reading.

To attract consumers in the purchasing process we also have little time: valuable seconds where we have to communicate the value proposition. And if what you are looking for is peace of mind, the use of typography helps to communicate it.

The constant line thickness reflects a sense of calm even in letters that simulate calligraphy. The lowercase letters help to create the feeling of speaking in a low voice. As British typographer Jock Kinneir said:

You speak in lowercase and YOU SHOUT IN CAPITAL LETTERS.

There is a social movement that celebrates quiet as a means of action, not procrastination. To do without haste, to calm a pace of life unsustainable for the health of people and for the capacity of the planet.

As everything that needs to be transmitted effectively is found a sticky way to name it, so was born what is known as the SLOW movement.

It is a philosophy of life that prioritizes being to have, being aware of and paying attention to each of our actions, savoring the moments, the natural food and recovering the artisan processes.

For that there are also products made with natural ingredients, without additives as antithesis of the industrial massiveness to which we had been accustomed. In this segment, illustrations by hand or made with colored paper stand out.

Many times the design or printing process is no longer handcrafted and is made to look like one. Misleading marketing? Maybe, but if the product inside responds to the values that simulate its exterior, that is the way to communicate to the consumer what idea the content was made with, not the packaging.

Haste is the enemy of perfection.

Hand in hand with nutritional and environmental awareness are the proliferation of products based on their vegetable origin, which need to be clearly differentiated from other foods. The growth of the vegetable-based drinks sector is an example of a product aimed at a micro-nichoche that is becoming increasingly massive.

In this design movement, nature is not represented through craftsmanship, but rather by an idea of simplicity and visual clarity, where resources are minimal and backgrounds are flat without textures.

If things continue as they are, we will face more and more reminders, more notifications, and imagine when we will have the need to remember to charge our electric car.

With this scenario PACKAGING SLOW will be more and more necessary. Sorry, I have to interrupt this article because I need to relax after the stressful task of writing about how brands promise to relax you.

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This is how I ended what I wrote when, obviously, I was much more in a hurry than today, but that was “normal” for me. The lockdown forced us to give ourselves and the planet a break.

It doesn’t matter if this moment is nature’s revenge or a bacteriological battle that got out of hand. What is important is the opportunity to become aware and to transform ourselves.

I’m sure we will all make more than one change in our lives, and I sincerely hope that it will not return to the previous “normality”, but to a better one.