Packaging design is the connection of elements like structure, materials, forms, imagery, typography, color, and regulatory information with ancillary design to make a product available for marketing. The first thing which is to do is create a vehicle that will help to serve, protect, transport, dispense, identify, store and distinguish a product in the marketplace. There are thousands of products on the shelves of the supermarket. Mass merchandise, department stores, outlets, specialty stores, and the internet marketing site from where consumers get attracted towards any product through their packaging design. Your goal must be to create packaging like that that can match the consumer product's personality and generate a sale.
- What is the Product?
- Who's buying the product?
- How are people buying the product?
1. What is the product? : This is not a tricky question, you must know what you are going to sell? Size of your product? How is your product made? Which is the material used to make it? Is it delicate?
2. Who is the Buyer?: You must know who your buyer is: a man, woman, or both? Is it for adult use or children? Is it made for environmentally conscious people? Is it for those who buy it on a budget or for disposable income?
3. What is the source of buying the product?: You must know how your customers are buying your product is it through the online market or the offline market like supermarkets, or small boutiques
The information which is needed to collect
- Colors
- Logo
- Fonts
Content is written on the packaging: Depends on the product you need to left some space for some content it is for the legal purpose you may include things like:-
Imagery: If you want some photos of your product then you must have the photo ready before packaging.
Required Marks: In some industries, some are important to put marks like barcode, association marks, nutrition information, etc.
Know the temporary contents: There is some temporary information on some products like cosmetics, foods, medicines, etc. Additional information must be there on different batches of products. As information changes every day it's possible you don't want to print this on your product. For that, what you can do is leave a space for a sticker while packaging and after packaging, you put a sticker on a late date with that temporary information.
Style likes and dislikes: It is a good idea to do some style research before starting packaging. What you can do is you can take a snap when you visit somewhere and take a snap of the design that you like or you can make a board on Pinterest and save pins from other users on that board. You don't have to copy the exact design but you can take an idea and take some parts of a design which attracts you. You must keep in mind that you don't have to make journeys right now but you have to start noticing the different options.
Budget: the packaging designing budget is divided into two parts:-
i. Low Budget
ii. High Budget
7 Steps of the Packaging process
1. Understand the layer of packaging: The packaging of products is divided into 3 layers outer layer, inner layer, and product packaging. It may need 1 layer or all 3 layers.
2. Outer packaging: outer outraging is the thing that creates an impression in buyer's minds and that is the only thing to attract customers. This may include the box in which the product is shipped to the stores.
3. Inner packaging: This is what keeps products safe from getting nestled safely in outer packaging or it may be a sealed bag that helps in preserving the freshness of a product.
4. Product packaging: Product packaging is in which the main product comes with a tag on cloth, a label on a bottle, wrapper, etc.
Choose the right type of packaging: There are different types of designs used in packaging designing these are given below:
- Mono Cartons design
- Corrugated Box design
- Paper Bag design
- Rigid box design
- PP Box design
- PET design
- Hang Tags design
- Cascades design
- Bellybands design
i. Products: At first, you need to see what is your product in which form is it available liquid, solid, or gas for example perfumes.
ii. Competition: You have to keep an eye on competitors, how they are selling their products, how they are packaging and you have to try something unique. You have to show your product unique in the market.
iii. The budget: You may have a good idea for packaging but what if you are low on budget and your idea is more expensive than your budget then it is not working so make some plan just like that which will cover your budget problem.
5. Line up your Printer
6. File format requirements
- Color options
- Dielines
- Digital vs offset printing
7. Create your Information architecture
Evaluate a packaging design
- Does packaging show an honest representation of the product?
- How will it look in a 3D model?
- How will it look in stores?
- Can you reuse the packaging design?
- Design must show versatility?
- Is it showing a clear image of your product?
Collect feedback: Start asking questions from stakeholders and people who never heard about your product ask them questions like:
Grab the right files from the designer
One thought to “The Packaging Design”
Good post. I learn something totally new and challenging on blogs I stumbleupon on a daily basis. Its always useful to read content from other authors and practice something from their websites.