When we set out to build Plainly, we wanted packaging that did what our formulas do: strip away the excess and leave only what's essential. We took that brief to Winkreative — the Zürich-, London- and Toronto-based agency founded by Monocle's Tyler Brûlé, known for an editorial restraint that has shaped brands from Swiss International Air Lines to Porter. Two years on, our work together opens the Germany pages of their Autumn 2023 brochure, Quality Works.
In Winkreative's own words
The agency titled the feature "An elegant hands-on experience" and credited the work to Visual Identity, Copywriting and Packaging Design. Their opening lines:
“In a beauty industry full of excessively decorative design and complex compositions, Plainly's natural, stripped-back skincare stands apart. To help them reach their ambition of elevating the brand towards the luxury market, we developed an identity and packaging that lives up to the brand's name — organic, transparent and simply beautiful.”
On the approach, they describe it as a deliberate stripping back:
“We reshaped the brand and packaging to reflect Plainly's less-is-more ethos — reducing the number of elements, turning away from the ornate and taking design cues from the economical elegance of nature.”
Colour as a quiet language
Each scent in the original line — Rosemary & Mint, Mandarin & Lemongrass, Spicy Ginger & Lime — earned its own colour, used as both an intuitive index and as a hidden moment inside the box.
“Colour is both functional and decorative — an intuitive system for indicating ingredients, and a springboard for creating moments of drama through pattern.”
A Bavarian diamond, quietly placed
Our triangular marquee — the Bavarian diamond — runs as a thread across the identity. It appears as a printed grid inside the boxes, and again as a small white-and-grey stamp on every kraft outer.
“Textural details can be found across the identity, like the triangular motif which nods to the brand's Bavarian roots.”
Part of the family
The brochure closes its studio pages with a note on the agency's relationship with Monocle: "While the two companies operate individually and act independently, they are united by a shared spirit — one founded on an informed perspective, global outlook and commitment to quality." That shared spirit is what drew us to Winkreative in the first place, and it carries through to where you find Plainly today — including the Plainly × Monocle collection in Monocle Shops worldwide.
Beyond Plainly
Quality Works gathers thirteen recent projects from across the studio's offices. Two that sit close to our own world:
Recognition, and what came next
“As well as elevating the brand into a new market, Plainly's renewed identity and packaging has received a prestigious iF Design Award.”
Three years on, the same design system carries quietly into work the original brochure never saw: our hospitality amenities for houses like Cortiina, and a growing body-care line that picks up where the hand collection began. The packaging is older than most of the products inside it — proof, we hope, that getting the foundation right pays out for years.
