I'm an easy crier and a frequent sneezer, so I buy lots of tissue. But for years it's been an exercise in aesthetic resignation. The pastel, flowery boxes always look like they've been designed for a 1982 funeral parlor, and I usually settle for what might be called the least worst -- a cheap, nondescript, store-brand box. But recently, I spotted something different: a Kleenex box from home-decor heaven. It had a groovy oval shape and a sharp, modern pattern. The price -- $3.29 for 82 tissues -- was ridiculous. Sold.

Turns out, this impulse buy was exactly what the Kleenex box designers at Kimberly-Clark had in mind when they launched their Expressions Oval Collection. According to Information Resources, Americans are buying less Kleenex; sales have fallen 5 percent in three years. Some folks are turning to cheaper store brands, while many younger Americans are content to blow into whatever's handy -- like, say, a fistful of napkins from Starbucks.

Kimberly-Clark's plan is to lure these people back with more contemporary designs. Christine Mau, the associate director of packaging graphics, who says she dreamed of designing Kleenex boxes as a little girl, sounds as if she's making good on a mission to save nose blowers from their worst selves.

"They were using toilet paper, quite frankly," she says. "We were able to get them into a boxed product."

Designer tissues were a long time coming. When Kleenex was invented in 1924, it came stacked in a plain, navy blue package. The parade of florals came later, but choices were fairly limited until the mid-'90s, when new research showed that people will pay more if they like the box. Since then, designs have more than tripled.

There are currently more than 100 Kleenex box permutations crowding the shelves, and Kimberly-Clark, which plans new box designs two years in advance, puts more effort into package design than frankly seems sane. It studies how many pink boxes are sold on the East Coast versus West, how age groups compare on box design loyalty and what percentage of households hide the containers in Kleenex box cozies. Kimberly-Clark designers inhabit their own new three-story building near the company's Neenah, Wis., campus where they can hang out in a "trend room" packed with magazines and catalogs or visit the mock family room to see how their objet d'art will look in a typical home.

What makes for a successful box? According to Mau, it has to appeal to women, fit current home-decor trends and look "trustworthy" -- hence no boxes depicting scenes from, say, Guant namo Bay. The color blue always tests well. Flowers are big favorites, but there's a significant antiflower contingent afoot, so every kind of Kleenex -- Menthol, Ultra Soft, Anti-Viral -- comes in floral and nonfloral packaging. Designs are also calculated to convey the tissue's special qualities. One Kleenex Lotion box, for example, features a foggy still life of vases filled with blooms; according to Mau, the gray, muted colors are meant to evoke the tissue's softness, while the airy, negative space surrounding the flowers suggests relief from sinus congestion.

Even with all this research, it's hard to predict which boxes will sell. The current hit, Electric Daisies No. 3, looks like the result of an ambitious flower wandering into a Las Vegas casino. But the reigning favorite for more than 25 years is the unassuming, feathery Flame Stitch design, inspired by the end papers that used to adorn hardcover books. Designers can't explain why, but every year, it tops consumer tests. "McDonald's has its golden arches; Kleenex has the Flame Stitch," says Mau.

Of course, if none of the 100-plus box designs appeal, you can always visit MyKleenexTissue.com, where for $5 (plus $6 shipping) you can design your own box. Now little girls who want to grow up to be Kleenex box designers don't even have to wait.

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