Design Briefs, Audits, and Research

While not the most interesting of concepts to learn about this is in fact a vital aspect of the packaging world. As someone who is highly obsessive compulsive I find the concepts of design briefs to be a breath of fresh air. I am the type of person who makes lists and I make a lot of them. I pay close attention to detail and am the type of person who can not move onto something else comfortably before the thing on the list above it is done. Briefs are so critical because it is important to know what the consumer wants to buy, what the vision is for the project at hand, what you can reasonably do with what you are given and all the other things that go into designing what the end result will be. The issue with pleasing everyone is so important. Taking on the legal aspect of all of this I can't help but to bring up medical and pharmaceutical packaging. There is so much that has to go on medical packaging and yet the packaging is always so small. It is important that there are so many legal things governing the type and placement of things and the idea that people came together as a group and made up all those regulations and placed them so that it would work perfectly. I thought this lecture was very beneficial and imperative to what we will be dealing with in the future when we graduate and move on into the field.

Typography

When I think of typography that is used on certain things to associate class with what you are buying I always think about alcoholic beverages most especially wines and or champagnes. When you are attempting to sell a product the typography is a lot of the times something that has to stick out. One thing that I found extremely interesting on the pictures above was the difference in type on the first two pictures above. If you look at them they almost have the exact same layout on the label. The space used and the words are exactly the same but the type is completely different and just by using a different type you can tell that the Andre is of a much lower class than the white star. Although the white star has a much simpler label just the type shows that you are buying something of a higher quality and this is difficult to do only using type. Then you move on to an even higher class of champagne and there too you can tell by the type that it is even higher than the White Star. Type can make or break your product when it hits a store. If you are trying to sell a high end product you don't want to use plain old times new roman and have everything lined up in a row just stating what you are selling. You want to make it a point to have some pizazz. Champagne I thought was a perfect example because it is strictly the type that is selling your product. You never have elaborate pictures to try to persuade a consumer it is the type that is going to set your product above the rest. Typography is such an important aspect of packaging and to truly be successful in packaging you need to make it a point to truly grasp what type can do for selling your product.

Photo Theory

I have only recently begun to truly enjoy photography and that is strictly due to my parents summer home outside of Charleston. I work down here six days a week at 10 to 14 hour shifts everyday but on my one day out I have started to calm myself strictly by taking photos. Being on an island offers the perfect landscapes to take amazing pictures. So when I get my day off during the week I ride my bike all over the island and attempt to find interesting things and take an interesting photo. Above are some random pictures that have been taken of the island. I find the sunset one over the marsh to be extrodinarily beautiful. To me a picture can completely relax you. I found the lecture on photo theory to be extremely helpful when it came to shutter speed and the whole do not use a flash at night and ISO. Alot of information that was placed in this lecture was extremely helpful since I only recently feel in love with photography. Now I can go out and take pictures and actually have an idea of what type of settings to put on the camera for the optimal picture and that exact time.

Color Psychology and Color Theory

I feel like everyone will comment on the Newton's color wheel but it is the most useful thing that was brought up in the lecture. Colors make a package and I do not care what anyone else has to say about that. That is one things I have found from doing all this research on laundry detergents. Laundry detergents to me are a funny thing. When I started doing my research I came to a conclusion, colors mean everything. Things like bleach which make your clothes white are constantly in a white containers. When you are waching your bright colored clothes the detergent always comes in vibrant colors like pinks and blues and purples. When you use a fabric softener to make your clothes softer the bottles are always delicate pastels. The most interesting concept was the new bottle for I believe woolite or tide that was made especially for dark clothing and the bottle was black. Colors truly do make the package what it is. If every package that was sold consisted of solely one or two colors who would be able to choose one product over the other. I personally enjoy going into any store and looking at all the new things and the design and colors that can be created to make any package sellable.

Space, Shapes, and Unity

I thought the best way to go about this blog would be to take the ideas of the square, triangle and circle aspect of the lecture. I want to start with the square which did not come out above quite as it did on the webpage. I assumed that since according to the lecture the square basically represents integrity and honesty than it is perfect that the logo to a Catholic school would be using a square to promote its name and function. When you think of a Catholic school you think about discipline but you think about honesty (for the most part) so it is a perfect choice to use a square as a promotion.

I found the triangle to be fascinating and I am glad that I thought of the logo to Delta airlines while doing this. Nothing quite states strength and power like Delta Airlines. Even after the decline in travel with the recent economy Delta is still doing much better than other airlines. Being one that traveled alot in my youth due to my fathers work we always traveled Delta. I remember riding on a flight from Buffalo, NY to Bakersfield, CA (which we did often) on American Airlines just once and thought it was the worst thing in the word (even though they too have a triangle logo) but the Delta symbol always stood out in my mind. I thought they truly were just powerful. Also what comes to mind is the symbol for recycling.

As for the circles very often being used as logos it was something I had never thought of before this lecture. I can think of hundreds of things whose logos are circles. Pepsi just happen to be the one who popped into mind immediately since I was drinking a Pepsi at the time. You also think about sports teams and starbucks. I would think that the circular aspect would be by far the most popular logo shape there is.

I also just wanted to bring up the idea on symmetry as well. I am the type of person who feels the need to have symmetry with everything. It is important to take into account bilateral as well as radio symmetry and the importance in using these ideas. Also the concept of white space seems to me to be a very important concept in the space aspect of things.

Consumer Studies

The idea of consumer studies is exceptionally of interest to me. It is so important to know your market when it comes to designing a package. For my Mintel case study I am doing the way that different cultures basically bottle their laundry detergents. I decided on this one after my original idea was not possible. Just from finding thirty-five different detergents from different countries made me realize that that is what I wanted to do. It is fascinating the types of different colors and pictures are used in Japan and China as opposed to a Brazil or Argentina. For instance above is a picture from Japan as well as Brazil. The bright colors and anime picture are a huge change from the beautiful woman and very soft colors. This all has to do with the culture and knowing what will sell to the people you are offering your goods too. I also found it extrodinary to realize how much goes in to attempting to sell to a certain age group over another. After going into a Walmart earlier I really truly did notice how certain things are truly marketed to a certain genre of person. Another thing that I found interesting about the culture aspect of everything was also something I found while looking up detergents. In Japan there is an actual detergent that is strictly made for cleaning white socks. In Saudi Arabia there is a detergent used strictly for head dresses. You know that these kinds of things are made and marketed towards that certain culture. You would never find a detergent that was meant to be used for a head dress in the United States and yet in Saudi Arabia it is a very large seller. This goes to show that cultures have everything to do with how you package and market your product.

Design Decisions

This was a great lecture when it comes to easability of use and to attempt to keep things as simple as possible. My father, who is a big wine drinker, always gave me a trick to buy wines. He said the prettier the label and the more complex the label the worse the wine is going to be. Now that I am of age I completely agree with him to a certain extent. I am the one who goes for the pretty labels, the colorful ones, and I always get disappointed. It is very true that when it comes to certain thing the simpler the better. A perfect example is the "infuriating packing" that they use in electronics. While this packaging is not simple in any way it is true that this package serves a very important function and that function is to prevent theft of these normally expensive items. In this case it is important to not have a simple and easy package. If companies did not use this they could lose millions in lost and stolen goods. I recently started taking commit lozenges to quit smoking and one thing that completely irritates me about this package is that the box size is way too big for the amount of product inside. I feel like by making a package this fits their product snuggly they could save millions of dollars just on the paperboard that is used. You have 3 little plastic tubes in a paperboard box that could easily fit 4. And then when you go to the store the items are constantly stolen out of these boxes because you are used to having so much jiggle room. All in all though I feel like simple is always better but it some cases it is too much of a necessity to be complicated to save you money.