Packaging design is an area where graphics are almost inextricably linked with structural or 3D design. The graphics on packaging always have to work very hard in a notoriously ‘noisy’ visual environment of the supermarket or shopping centre, communicating both function and emotion. In this way, graphic design for packaging is a sophisticated blend of advertising, branding and information design.
‘It’s about communicating to consumers who are in a rush, so there are two things you have to do. The first is to get noticed – create impact beyond the context of where you are to get people interested. The second is to create desire – getting noticed for the right reasons,’ says Jon Davies, managing director of packaging design consultancy Holmes & Marchant.
Harrods Opulence tea products, designed by Honey, 2008, Hovis packaging by Jones Knowles Ritchie, 2008 and Freixenet sparkling wine designed by Holmes & Marchant
Unlike a piece of print design, which can often stand alone, packaging design goes bang up against its competitors on shelves and in stores. Graphic designers working in this area have to remember this, says Davies. ‘You can’t just sit in front of your screen producing beautiful things on a big white background because that’s not where packaging is going to be. You have to slap yourself into reality and check to make sure it works in the real world.’
A piece of packaging design has to function at various levels. From a distance it must have impact, achieved through colour, icons, type or illustration, as well as form and materials. Up close, it must use the same elements to deliver greater detail about the product’s ‘story’, whether that is primarily a functional sell, such as ‘low-fat’ or ‘wheat-free’, or an emotional narrative about provenance, such as ‘traditional bacon from pigs outdoor-reared on a small, family-owned farm’.
A graphic designer working on packaging is likely to operate hand in hand with structural designers and brand planners, says Davies. ‘Even when we’re doing purely graphical projects we try to put structural people on the team too, as it helps give a broader view. Structural designers might have an insight into how the packaging’s substrate, fold or material could be changed to help the graphic design, for example. We also meet with the planning teams to make sure that the brief and story are right. At the start, a planning brief is turned into a creative brief, but it’s not a relay race through different departments – all the disciplines work together.’