Hai Tran is Senior Structural Designer, working on packaging projects, with brand design consultancy SiebertHead.
As Senior Structural Designer, my role starts at the beginning, when a brief comes in from the client.
It’s often not a written brief, but they might ask a question. We look into the background, the problem, ask lots of questions up front. We do a detailed analysis of what they want.
Once a brief has been formalised, we generally try to understand the brand, its background and heritage, competitors and where it wants to go. We sometimes create image boards, using colours, images and textures to explain what a brand’s about. It provides visual cues and helps us generate ideas.
We generally scope the market every time we get a new commission. You need to get involved outside work, sourcing new materials, keeping your eye on trends and new happenings.
The next stage is brainstorming, with up to 10 people. You sometimes get the marketing department involved, or maybe the receptionist to take a consumer viewpoint. We sometimes go out into the street and ask people to take part. From that output we would go off to our own desks and design what we believe the packaging should be like.
Design for me is not just about creating beautiful things. It’s very much also about business. You have to consider whether consumers will buy into a design. You need to understand consumers and your market. While graphics is all about surface and impact, packaging also asks how something feels in the hand, and whether it works.
We develop ideas which we feel meet all the criteria in the brief. We sketch with pencil and pen, and create CAD visuals for a client. A client would normally choose a couple of concepts for further development, which we make into physical models. We have our own model shop in the studio. I get involved in making models. We try to do as much of the development here as possible. That’s an important part for me.
A client then sees those mock-ups and chooses one. It’s then taken onto a technical level, with technical drawings, specifications, choice of materials. The last stage is getting the prototype moulding in. And before you know it, the packaging is out on the shelf.
I live in Camberwell and normally get up at 7.30am to try and get into work for 9am. I travel by train. Sometimes, if I have a presentation to prepare I will get in earlier to make sure we have everything organised when we present the work.
I’m not always in the studio. We do research in stores, and visit factories to understand how a client’s current packs are produced. We have client meetings for briefings, presentations and interim catch-ups.
Sometimes I go abroad. It sounds glamorous but it’s all work, work, work. But at other times I get to go out with the client on a brand immersion exercise. You go and try to and understand a brand, where it is located and how the products are produced. For example, for a beer brand we visited their brewery in the mountains of Austria. It helped us to understand the whole process of how the beer was produced.
It’s not always a nine-to-five job. When it comes to working late, it depends on the project. Some have certain deadlines and you may have two or three deadlines in a week. When they build up you may have to work quite late. Each project projects an image of us. It’s going to be out there on the shelves. So we always put maximum effort and creativity into each job.
It’s a fantastic career. It’s very creative and the environment you work in is very enjoyable. I get involved right from the first briefing, and there’s a lot of variety. You’re not doing the same thing day in, day out. And you’re not always in the office. It’s a buzz, a real passion.
Hai Tran is Senior Structural Designer at SiebertHead, brand design consultants whose clients include Carlsberg and Toblerone