It was an entire world that I was able to go back to

“It was an entire world that I was able to go back to.” As well as composing the songs, he committed them to C90s – “whistled and plonked out on a guitar into a tape recorder” – which he has updated over the years “so they don’t fall apart”. But I can’t sing.”Despite never enacting the dream, Banks appears to have done everything but, providing himself with an encyclopaedic resource when he came to write Espedair Street. “It is difficult, not to mention risky [for own brands] to be too revolutionary by moving too far away from their category format, as they risk losing vital potential market share,” the report says. “This should not mean, however, that they slavishly copy a successful pack design with so little differentiation that it is confused with the original branded product.”The remedy, according to Siebert Head, lies in “structural packaging” – industry jargon for anything more than printed packaging.

This is principally how the myriad brands of perfume have differentiated themselves in a crowded market. It may even be how the consumer subliminally distinguishes between whisky and bourbon. The Jif Lemon and the Toilet Duck are more spectacular examples of the art.The innovation can be small. Elmwood treads the line with packaging for Asda’s own-brand baby oil.

Launched in November, the packaging resembles a certain well-known brand, with its pear-shaped baby profile. Its unique touch is to mould a buttock cleavage detail into the “bottom” of the bottle. In the event of a legal challenge, Asda will be able to point to this distinctive humorus feature. (If Asda had called its biscuit Guillemot rather than Puffin, the obvious humour might have got it off the charge of copying.)Sands admits he will not win creative awards for the work But his client is happy.

The packaging, together with a reformulated product, has reversed a previous decline and now allows Asda’s own brand to compete directly with branded products. (Other designers believe that achieving these objectives should not be incompatible with top levels of creativity).A unique shape or other “structural equities” can be supported by other distinguishing features. Hand-lettered graphics are more easily protected than colours, for example. Such features are more readily given legal protection as well as harder to copy in practical terms. Where possible, they should also make it easier for the consumer to release the product from the packaging.

“If a structural design offers optimum performance, it has most of the ingredients required to become a market leader in its category,” according to Siebert Head.An example is the packaging of Halford’s own brand of motor oils, which is illustrative not only of retailers’ healthy new interest in developing their own distinctive brands but also of using them to achieve sector dominance at least in its own stores.The design solution came in two parts, the form and function of the container, and its appearance and communication. “We thought it was important to use form designers as well as graphic designers,” says Chris Forman, Halford’s strategic business development manager. “Few retailers, or brand owners for that matter, are aware of when a 3D designer can help.” Product designers’ expertise in ergonomics, manufacturing processes and materials, and three- dimensional detailing can make the difference not only in terms of user benefits, such as ease of pouring, but also in knowing the tricks that can provide brand differentiation and protection against copying.Halford’s chose the “most progressive” of three design concepts modelled in foam by Gavin Thomson, a product designer at Pentagram. Although not the highest scorer in research, this proposal took advantage of relatively new (and so hard to copy) blow-moulding technology that would lead to the creation of the most distinctive container.Siebert Head praises retailers like Halfords.