Packaging design is more than just creating a design of the vessel which has to hold the product. In fact, it is actually a process of forming a strategy to ensure systematic delivery of product to the customer.
The main purposes of a packaging design include defining the product’s characteristics, making the packaging align with the brand, and ensuring the success of product among a crowd of products with prominent packaging designs.
The product packaging is not just a shape of the packaging that is being used while the product is being transported, but it also builds customer perception about your brand and products.
For instance, a fragrance bottle with a depiction of flower petals on the outer packaging will give you a clear idea about the type of fragrance contained by the bottle.
Packaging that is in direct contact with the product is known as primary packaging. And secondary packaging protects the primary packaging.
A complete product packaging design is the one that is capable of guiding customers through a process of brand building experience. And this guidance starts with the outermost, or secondary, packaging of the product. Customers get instructions about unboxing right from the start and these instructions continue coming in with the removal of each layer until the product is fully uncovered.
Below here is a guide that should help you create an effective packaging design for your products.
First of all, you are going to have to know your product well. That should help you draw a picture of the type, shape and size of cardboard boxes that you need for the product packaging.
Before finalizing a packaging design, make sure that it is locked. The locked status of a packaging design means that design features of this product have been finalized. If a design is available only in CAD, you are going to have to build a product surrogate in order to get it tested for user experience, fitting, and function. Although you can create a virtual packaging design using this software, keep in mind that you are going to address the needs of people living in real world. And so, it is very important to get a prototype of the packaging design prepared and tested.
Information about the weight of product combined with other materials help you know about the substrates that you need to avoid as well as the ones that you need to inquire about. This way, you will be able to know about the amount of cushioning required for adequate protection of the product during an ISTA test, which involves dropping of the package on different faces and edges, vibration testing, and a number of other important tests. If a packaging fails to pass these tests, it would mean that there is more to be done for the packaging to be adequately protective for the product.
With the help of a bill of materials (BOM), you will be able to identify the components that share space within the product packaging. Moreover, it also informs about the unboxing’s order of operations.
Product packaging is no longer just a way to ensure safety of products while they are being shipped. It has also become an important medium which can be used for the marketing of products and brands. This silent seller keeps doing its marketing job long after the product has been used up. It doesn’t only remind customer of the product but it can also be helpful in encouraging potential customers to become existing ones.
When it comes to the packaging’s capability to do the marketing job, the role of design elements can never be ignored. But the typography and color alone are not enough to pull off the marketing job. You are going to have to take help from the patterns. These patterns on the product packaging become your brand representation. And so, it is very important to pay attention to the development of great patterns which are to be printed on the product packaging.
First of all, you are going to have to pay attention to creating the packaging that works for your brand. This packaging has to be good enough to tell the world about your product and brand.
To find out the visual style for your brand, you will have to look through the styles of brands that are dealing with the same types of products that you are selling. Notice the typefaces they are using, the colors they are adding, and the special visual design they like to go with. Try to figure out the design elements that work well for your brand.
You can get inspiration from online platforms such as Pinterest. You can do the searching by entering the keywords related to your company’s values and products. You will be able to see different boards and pins from where you can get inspiration.
The next thing you are going to have to do is to get specific information about your audience. First you need to know who they are. Then you will have to do the research about what they do for living. You will also have to track the activities they like to do in their free time. You will need to get information about the colors they like. And lastly, you will have to discover the design trends which can influence them on daily basis.
After figuring out the style that you want to use with the product packaging, now you need to pay attention to the patterns that can truly represent your brand. You can design a pattern from the scratch but it might not be quite easy task for you. But if you think that you are a creative person with a fair sense about the link between a brand and the patterns which can represent that brand in a better way, you certainly need to open a canvas in your computer or tablet and get started.
And if you are not good at creating patterns, you can get ideas from the existing patterns. Browse through the patterns available on the web and try to find a match for your brand. You will obviously need to do a little customization of those patterns to make them fully compatible to your brand; but it is not going to be quite difficult for sure.