Packaging Design: Instant Vision Decision

The principle of packaging design is to attract attention. They must be eye-catching by matching color graphics, unique shapes, or other means. The packaging design is very important for every company's market work, no matter how good the products in the package, if consumers do not pick it up, they will not try it.

Simply put, the packaging design is to make a container, with graphical and visual information, consumers may buy the product in the retail store or receive the product in the mailbox. This container may be a simple bottle or a carefully crafted box, or multiple box sets. Both graphic design and 3D design involve the need to consider other issues besides the visual elements, such as packaging materials and the qualification of the manufacturer.

Packaging design seems relatively simple. Most people think that they can also be qualified as packaging designers. They may have a desktop computer and some simple software. They think that the task of designing packaging is not complicated. However, it is a well-known fact that no one died because of poor packaging design, but some products have exited the market due to poor packaging design.

For a product, maybe everyone needs it, but only when people see it and know what it can get, people realize that they need it. Packaging is usually the first impression of a product, which is why it takes a packaging designer. In today's fierce market competition, their main goal is to make the product's packaging easy to identify and make it easy for people who need the product to recognize it.

In fact, people pay more attention to packaging than the product itself. Many companies have realized that there are many potential messages on the packaging that need to be conveyed. The packaging of the past may be just a box to protect the product, but now it can not only promote the product, but may also provide other services.

It has been pointed out that most consumers simply “browse and select” products from the shelves instead of reading everything carefully. They do not look at a product. They know what they are looking for, and they want to find it. Put it into the shopping basket and walk away. Consumers do not compare products very rarely. So what kinds of products are what customers expect, they tend to buy brands that fit their consumption needs, and if the price is acceptable, they may implement the purchase. So it's very important to recognize your brand quickly and find it.

Although the truth is easy to understand, packaging design involves more than eye-catching content. More often, it is an extension of the company’s marketing strategy and a great opportunity to provide information.

While including aesthetic factors, packaging design first and foremost is for sales. CokerGolley Design's Frank Golley, who once designed packaging for Coca-Cola, ConAgra Poultry, Flowers Industries and Georgia Pacific, stated: "An effective packaging design should be appropriate, targeted, and promote sales. Repeaters and follow-ups The products in the packaging need to be consistent with the promotion of the packaging, and the communication with the consumers needs to achieve a consistent visual performance of the packaging and the products."

Tom Antista, head of Antista Fairclough Design, believes that “design work is very meaningful. It not only requires design skills, your design content is only a small part of a complex process.” In fact, packaging design is far more than creating a Going to the fun box is much more complicated. “Good packaging is not just an accident,” Antista’s customers include Anheuser Busch, Coca-Cola, Fetzer Vineyards and Wolfgang Puck Food. He said: “Behind good packaging is the study of purchasing behavior, which requires creating a lot of relevant information. ."

The market has driven demand for designers. Without a marketing department, the designers are merely art workers without the ability to market. When the packaging designer receives a job, they usually receive a "design outline" from the customer, which contains the basic information of the product, the target customer, the method of use, and a description of the relevant container, such as capacity, how can, and Display and so on. At the same time, the budget will also provide designers, as well as the necessary materials and packaging production process instructions.

Later, designers began to develop visual information and develop color matching solutions for target customers. Afterwards, the design plan will be handed to the professional team to investigate the market reaction, and then quantitative and qualitative analysis will be conducted before the design is determined.

The skills needed for packaging design goes far beyond the good feeling of design. To do a better job, a packaging designer needs both the structural engineer's knowledge and the graphic designer's beauty.

Golley pointed out, "Package design is not just about looking good. It is technology-oriented. It also requires a fairly deep understanding of printing and production. Packaging printing has some very specific limitations. You understand the understanding of the production process. Our Design must be combined with it. When consumers get a product, the visual discovery they receive must match the original intention of the marketing department.”

The time spent on a project by a designer varies depending on the circumstances. Usually, when the marketing department has a new promotion idea, designers start to intervene in this new product. It may be necessary for a design company to create a 3-D model based on an existing container or a newly defined container design. The special patterns and labels are then fused onto the containers to distinguish them from other products.

The maturity of a customer can have a big impact. Larger customers or mainstream companies usually do a certain amount of investigation based on the market environment. Some manufacturers started to work with packaging designers before product development, such as consulting on product colors during the market development stage. For packaging designers, the ideal situation is to be able to participate in the determination of the shape and material of the package while considering the most suitable container from a technical and economical point of view.

This way, the designer can get a creative summary and then convert it into a visual expression. If the intervention is late, the designer is actually working within the framework that others expect, and if they come in earlier, they can give a comprehensive idea.

Golley described the design process as linear and experimental, giving several alternatives. The packaging design process is very different from that of the graphic design industry. When the packaging designer is ready to provide a solution for a customer, he already has a set of processes, about 20 to 30 steps, until the completion of the design plan.

In fact, both the designer and the manufacturer need to jump out of the limitations of the original framework when considering a packaging concept. The packaging of the product needs to visually show who is the target customer and explain to them why this design plan is suitable for such consumers.

The packaging icon that many packaging designers try to emulate is the Coca-Cola bottle. The shape of the Coca-Cola bottle is familiar to the world. No matter which corner of the world you go to, familiar shapes and colors immediately think of the products and consumer expectations it contains. It is the highest level that any designer wants to reach. Not only does it become a well-known symbol, but its packaging has become part of the company's brand. Packaging and packaging products are also of concern.

The Coca-Cola bottle is a very successful package. Even if you only see the bottle's projection on the wall, people can think of it as a coke bottle. Its packaging is very good blend of market and advertising effectiveness.

India's Root Glass developed a silhouette bottle in 1913, which was first introduced to the market in 1915. Prior to contouring bottles, Coca-Cola used the same variety of containers as other beverage companies, depending on the filler.

Contour bottle is "unique packaging for unique products," as Coca-Cola's manager Tony Tortorici said, "This design, if someone puts it in an ice bucket, even if he doesn't look at it, he knows it's Coca-Cola."

The shape of the bottle and the color of the glass "Georgia green" are trademarks. After World War II, the outline bottle was adopted by the world. In 1950s Time magazine used the bottle as the cover. This is the first time that a trademark has such an honor.

In recent years, Coca-Cola has used similar bottles in new ways. In 1980, the plastic version of the outline bottle was introduced. In the 1990s, the outline bottle pattern was printed on a coke bucket. "We want to inherit the rich heritage of glass bottles," Tortorici said. "But if canned Coca-Cola is also made into the shape of a silhouette bottle, then the cost is a bit high."

Coca-Cola is embedding the brand connotation of the logo into people's minds. The icons contain many things, which is why they use it.

Similar to Coca-Cola, Absolut Vodka also uses the same shape of the bottle, but transparent packaging. In the growing international market, packaging designers have been pursuing similar successes.

When a product goes to the international market, packaging design faces many problems. Products may not only be sold in non-English speaking countries, but may not use Western color, logo, and other cultural connotations may be different. In this case, the package still needs to let potential consumers know what product it contains.

Going international means that you need to understand the local conditions and environment. The packaging design needs to allow consumers to communicate with the packaged products. Need to convey the quality of the product and the characteristics of the company that sells the product.

Similar to Coca Cola or Absolut, from an international perspective, containers need to build a brand. The designer hopes that every customer can pay attention to the brand and use the brand to package a product.

No matter where the design company is, the purpose is to create a visual impact that allows consumers to notice the products on the shelf within a short time. The success or failure of the product at that moment depends on the designer's skills, knowledge and talent.

In fact, most of the products that were packaged were unsuccessful when they were first listed. Many of them are merely provoked by a moment and quickly fade out of the market. Everyone in this industry knows that packaging can either sink the product or allow it to take off.



Source: Modern Packaging