Vox pop

Dulux claims its new paint packaging has been designed to make painting easier for women. What other products would benefit from a gender specific revamp and why?

‘My wife complains that our Dyson is too heavy to carry up the stairs and our Mountfield lawnmower requires man strength to start and push around the lawn. My only complaint – our Rowenta iron could do with a few more buttons and flashy lights.’

Spencer Buck, Joint creative director, Taxi Studio

‘Tampons. I must confess to not having too much personal experience of these nasty little nightmares, but most of the women I know who are prepared to discuss the issue find them extremely objectionable in more than one respect. Funny, isn’t it? Sometimes, gender specificity visits even worse crimes upon the user than we find in “androgynous” ones.’

Richard Seymour, Senior partner, Seymour Powell

‘A lot of standard packaging containers should be better designed, like the jar you can’t get the lid off, the plastic clam pack you can’t get into or the cardboard multi-pack that tears when you pick it up. Designing them to be gender specific isn’t really the issue. They should be designed to make everyone’s lives easier.’

Bruce Duckworth, Partner, Turner Duckworth

‘There aren’t many products I would consider to be absolutely male or female. However, some would benefit from upping their male or female characteristics. For example, the increasing desire for men to be “hairless” means that hair removal creams could do with “butching-up”. Likewise garage repair services and builders yards could do with a female touch – so my colleagues say.’

Stephen Bell, Creative director, Coley Porter Bell

‘I get irritated when I have to ask a man with bigger, stronger hands to open a jar. Is it beyond the wit of man or woman to design an accessible seal? Laughably, someone out there is designing gadgets to put in the hands to open the jars. Let’s get to grips with this.’

Keren House, Creative director, Siebert Head

‘Women buy a lot of batteries, yet it’s a nerdy men’s world of meaningless initials and numerals. Who on earth remembers whether they need an AA or an AAA, let alone an LR6 or an HP7? There has to be a memorable and involving way of differentiating them.’

Mary Lewis, Creative director, Lewis Moberly

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