10 Important things for the graphic designer while doing Packaging designs.

When we present someone something we used to wrap it up nicely. We, as humans used to have a custom to wrap things up and presenting well. What that really shows? What that signifies?

It signifies three things.

1.       This is a thing of value

2.       I am sharing my value with you

3.       You are valuable to receive this product.

This simple method of wrapping ( Packaging) is giving value to 3 different ideals. One is the object. The other is the giver and the next one is the taker.

A good packaging design does these three things

·         Give value to the product

·         Give value to the entrepreneur

·         Give value to the customer/consumer.

A quality packaging design shows the company’s quality through its branding elements, shows the quality of the product itself and assure the customer that the product is worth buying. When you as a graphic designer doing the packaging design, you must know with whom all / what all you are conversing with.

Here are the 10 valuable tips every graphic designer must bear in mind while doing the packaging designs

1.     Your intention is to sell the product, Not showcasing your artistic skills.

A packaging design is not an artwork. it doesn’t have  stand alone value.  The focus of your creativity must be oriented on the product. Being too much imaginative and being too much individualistic on your designs will have negative impact. Always try to keep a balance. The most important thing you should keep in mind is the fact that you are helping the creator to sell that product.

Here I am listing some of the precautions you can take to avoid this mistake.

·         Try to give the customer an instant feel of what the product is

·         If the weight of your graphics/illustration is overshadowing the product then remove it.

·         Do not do graphics over the top of the photography of the product

·         If you are using the product picture on the packaging(some companies do not. Depends on the one who creates it) give extra time than the rest.

·         Do not use vector graphics or illustration of the product if the photograph of the product is used. You may think it is cool to create a miniature vector of the product along with the actual photograph. But it’s not.

·         Statutory warnings and bar codes have a size limit and should be visible clearly.

·         All the fonts should be readable. Artistic and Unreadable fonts  must be avoided. People are seeking what the product is and what information it has, Not the beauty of your fonts.

2.     Giving visual weight to the information.

The entire graphic design process is giving visual weight to the information without losing the overall balance of the design. Giving visual weight is very crucial when you do the packaging design. To get it right grasp as much information as possible early before starting the project. Usually your client necessarily do not give what you need. You should go through all the previous packaging designs they have done and get cues from it. A good research about the company will also do good. With all the Information you will get an idea about 

·         How they want to represent?

·         What they want to focus?

·         How the branding elements are presented?

These things ar important even before you take the pencil and paper.

Now let’s talk about how to give visual weight very briefly. The factors that determines the visual weight of graphical elements are

·         Color

·         Shape

·         Size

·         Texture

·         Effects

·         Contrast

·         Depth

·         Perspective

The purpose of giving visual weight is to guide the viewer in the way you want.

3.     Understanding the clients interest the right way.

Every time you submit a project for final approval you can ask a detailed review about it. Be open about your design. Have a great discussion with your client. Most of the times the client won’t be expressing what they want which makes sense to a graphic designer. When they tell you “I want it in red” it means you as a graphic designer must emphasize more on that information and should give more visual weight to it. “Make it big” means it should be more readable.

You as a packaging designer need to understand this without losing your nerves. If you want to have a long run with the client, you must figure out what they actually trying to convey and merge it into your design successfully.

4.     Emulating the feel of the product in the packaging design.

When you are seeing and holding a package of milk, you should feel that it is a package of milk. If the design feels like cooking oil, nobody is going to buy it. The design should match with the product and its utility. The packaging design of an electronic product varies greatly from that one has toys. There is nothing like one design to all. Products in different categories need different treatment. The classification of products can be done mainly as

·         Organic

·         Inorganic

Organic ones which include milk, dairy, pickles, jam etc, mainly food products. These products need an organic treatment. There is a reason the chili powder in a red and black packet. By looking at the packet you can feel the bitterness. Usually we do not associate abstract ideas with organic products. That makes them unique. In designing it should be reflected.

But while designing inorganic products (electronic equipments, toys, etc.) we associate abstract ideas with it. Though there is a big scope for designing the way you want. But, It should be narrowed down to companies principles and branding strategies.

What the company stands for?

What are their brand strategies?

 Is it reliability, efficiency, loyalty? Your designs should reflect that.

To summarize, there are organic products where the design rules are fixed and there is inorganic products where the design rules are flexible.

5.     Giving prior importance to the product if it is on the cover page.

Graphic designers are having a nasty tendency to avoid the product and focus more on the creative design. In the product packaging world this is one of the most important killer of one’s career. If your client insists to put the product on the cover (most of the product packaging are doing this way. Again it depends on the product and the client /  company), then you must give extra attention and care to the product on the cover.

Make sure that the image of the product matches exactly with the one that is inside. To a customer the image of the product on the packaging is the only source to know what it is inside the package. If you put a blue product image on a product which is actually yellow, not only that you will loose the relationship with your customer, you may also run into some legal problems. So make sure that the product inside and outside are matching the same.

When you work on the image of the product it is good to give some glossy and shining effects in a subtle way (not making the customer aware that it has been heavily photo shopped). But too much alternation will harm the selling than doing well. So be careful.

Some of the points are

·         Do not scale the product disproportionately to make it fit

·         Do not crop the product image. Use it full.

·         Do not change the color of the product.

·         The effects like shadows must look very natural.

The product image must be the one which stands out from all other graphics.

6.     Have a Visual impact. Use the psychology of colors on the packaging design

To create a great visual impact, you should be aware of

·         The target audience

·         Product category

·         Branding strategies of the company

·         Current trends or culture

·         Store and location on which the product is placed

7.     Be aware of the nature of Graphical elements inside the packaging design

The graphical elements inside a packaging design should be able to convey the nature and the feel of the product. That is why a graphic designer should be very careful while choosing fonts. Understand an electronic product and a dairy product is entirely different in nature. Usually the name of the product will come as the main graphical element. It carries the most visual weight. All the other graphical elements including the textures that you create should resemble or emulate the feel of the main element. This is mainly done by tweaking the shapes. if the font that you are using is a smooth-edged one try not to create any sharp edges in the other elements. The entire packaging should look like it belongs to one family. You have to consider some constants in this scenario. Logo for example. Constants like this will never change. It is always better to tweak the graphical elements between the logo and the product.

8.     Persuading the customer to pick it up and hold it.

Lately I have visited an apple stores though my intention was to buy another product. One of the packaging designs caught my attention. The design is literally inviting me to come and pick that product. And once you hold that in your hands then it is half yours. That spark of desire the packaging design has given will make you to buy the product. That is the magic of design. Extremely impressive designs will work like dream.

If you are privileged to work on the shape of the cartoon then consider it as a great opportunity. See the packaging of Doritos- toasted corn. Here I am giving you a list of the most  Innovative And Efficient Package Designs. 

9.     Make your design work than making it look good.

Take for example the designs of Amazon and FedEx package. You will understand what they do and what that company stands for. Getting dressed for marriage and getting dressed for a party are different. When students come out of design school what actually they are doing is getting dressed for a marriage while the actual happening is the party. I have seen great portfolios of packaging design. But the problem is they don’t work in the market well.

It all depends on the customer and the product. If a person is looking up for milk in the market, he would pick the package that resembles like the milk and more familiar ones that he has brought before. This is where your design comes to play. If it is superficial and artier, then the design is not going to work. The design should be in perfect balance to serve your actual purpose.

10.       Research on how the product is going to be displayed on the market.

Do  research on how your product is going to be displayed on the market. Do it especially if you are in retail business. We are using modern methods and techniques to improve the “shelf life” of the product. Which means we don’t want the product to live longer in one shelf. That would be a disaster.  wouldn’t it?

Some of the methods and techniques available today for marketing are:

·         Tachistiscopes: This is used to present a visual stimuli in controlled situation to explore memory, learning and perception. A W Volkman discovered it in 1859. It has been used to measure reaction time in psychological experiments.

·         Perception Research Services \ Eye-tracking –  The visual attention of a customer tend to spread broadly. “They tend to scan horizontally 4 feet from the floor.”  says Ray Burke. By monitoring where the customer is looking we have 60-70 %  chance to improve the sales.

·         Virtual reality simulations. These are done in experimental subjects to understand the shelf impact.

What do you think? Your comments and suggestions are always welcome.