Morning session
As a group we brought in 5 examples of packaging. We then arranged these into groups. Poor, OK and Good. It was interesting to see the criteria with which we judged the worked. At first, and like last year we seemed to just judge the work visually "Oh This, has a nice logo, put it in good!"
After further thought and looking into the idea of packaging in it's purest form, we realised the design is obviously an aspect that adds to the quality of packaging but we realised sustainability is important, the stock is important, the feel of the stock is important. How well it attracts it's audience is important, suitability for purpose is important.
Bad
Ok
Good
Had a group discussion about our exercise and compiled a 'definitive' list of what makes a packaginf product poor, ok, or good.
TOP:
- Nice feeling stock
- Foiling processes, fancy printing processes that they didn't have to but they did for an extra finish
- Looks expensive, when maybe it's not
- Durability
- Usefulness, something you would want to keep. Sometimes maybe this isn't intended though?
Middle:
- Disposability
- Good durability but design doesn't match
- Good visual design but choice of stock or usability is poor
- Uninspiring design, very generic and looks mass produced when it's not, or maybe just is.
- Familiarity can sometims lead to feeling pretty indifferent about a piece of packaging
Bottom:
- Overcrowding
- Ephermeral - this can sometimes be good though, for example a carrier bag is designed to be ephemeral to be good to the earth
- Mass produced looking when maybe it's not.
- Poor quality images and design, pixelated images. Poor layout, bad typefaces, cheesy typefaces. Comic sans for a luxury item. Etc
- Mimicking other products, not for satire but just because of laziness
Worth noting:
Colour is contextual. Some might say vivid or bright colour isn't good but its subjective and for example 'bright' colour might be the designers intent and might add to the personality and feeling the item gives you when looking at it
Familiarity. Can knock things down. Sometimes a sign of good design is you don't even notice it and take it for granted. For example a paper clip, you might think it's pretty average. Try improving a paper clip at it's job?!
Reusability. of packaging. For example, keeping an iphone box, to resell the phone.
In this afternoons workshop we followed on from the mornings workshop. We were instructed to bring in 5 examples of packaging and 5 examples of branding and identity through print.
We went a step further than the mornings session and picked out 5 examples of print and applying the logo to 1 piece of packaging net. I chose the Urban Outfitters bag as the packaging net. We were creating our interpretation of branding each time.
Aim to do examples for each piece of branding, ending up with 100 examples of branding in total on the same net.
These are the 5 examples of print.
This is the Urban Outfitters packaging I cut up to use as a net. Which I would apply 5 different logos and brands to, 20 times each..
In this afternoons session I only managed 16! The picture below is me applying the Carharrt brand to the packaging.
The branding had to include "Carharrt" "Work In Progress" and "Fall/Winter 2012"
I tried to use the packaging and dimensions and context of the brand to my advantage. For example the idea of the bag handles having the illusion of the person carrying an umbrella, or headphones in their hand. As you can see in the bottom right of the design sheet. I also messed around with the idea of a panel pocket. Like a chest pocket you'd get on a t-shirt or polo shirt.
Or even a 'see through' bag print, which is literally a sort of 3d wrapped around photo made to look like a see through bag showing the autumn/winter collection. Or a fur/fleece material lined bag to create the vibe of a fall/winter collection and the fur lined hooded parka jackets in their fall/winter collection
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Basically the concept is to think outside the box a little bit and somehow try to portray the product and brand through the packaging rather than just the composition and layout of the logo.
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The task set for next Tuesday is to apply one brand, to 5 different packages of mine, such as an Old Spice fragrance packing and As it stands I only have 1 brand done - Carrhart. So hopefully in the next few days I will do the same exercise with 2 more print identities - probably Krispy Kreme and ASOS and apply this to the same net, this will allow me to get a concept and overall visual feel for 3 of the brands which I can then apply to 5 different nets. Plan!
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