OUGD601 - PROJECT STATEMENT

PROJECT STATEMENT

Within this module, I have been looking into the influence packaging design has on consumer purchase, researching into the different factors designers need to consider when designing packaging. The essay discusses various theories that can have an affect on consumer purchasing such as Ian Pavlov's classical conditioning theory, and more psychological elements that can effect how a consumer responds to a product, such as colour theory. Gaining a better knowledge of the theories behind consumer purchasing allowed me to discuss within the essay what really influences consumers and how they respond to certain things. Trends was one topic that I discussed, looking into how popular trends can have a large impact on the sales of particular items, and looking into how brands respond to these trends through their advertisement and branding.  Throughout the essay, I have evidenced various examples of packaging designs and analysing how consumers have responded to various types of packaging design. My main focus for the essay was to discover what design methods were the most impactful when it came to packaging design, looking into the aesthetics and practicality of numerous products on the market. Referring back to the theories and linking it with particular products and brands was an interesting insight into marketing and how brands use certain colours and typefaces for example to appeal to particular markets. One example within my essay focuses on gender stereotypes within design and how brands will design their packaging to appeal to their specific target audience, even if that means using stereotypical methods such as the use of harsh masculine typefaces for a protein brand. A main part of my research was looking into the bigger brands such as McVities and the power they have within the supermarkets, highlighting the importance of having a loyal customer base when it comes to highly competitive markets. The advertisement of food packaging is something that can have a huge impact on the way consumers perceive a product. Within my essay I have discussed various examples of good and bad advertisement and the effects these advertisements have had on these brands. Cadbury's Gorilla advert was my example of good use of advertisement, and Nestle's Yorkie bar as the bad. 

The practical piece I designed to work alongside my essay were inspired by the practical packaging methods that I had looked into, considering how a consumer would interact with particular products. The boxes I have designed focuses on portion control and how to avoid food wastage, relating back to my topic of sustainability and how that is a 'trend' that people are getting more involved with. The boxes both have guides that the user would use to accurately manage their portions as in my research I conducted I found that people struggled to make the perfect amount of spaghetti and rice. The boxes also include clear cooking instructions that the consumer would follow as it adds another way that they could interact with the packaging. An example within my essay was researching into the positive effect good packaging design can leave on a consumer, resulting in repeat purchases. My practical piece considers the aesthetics of the item and how it would stand out on a shelf amongst its competitors, whilst using a relatively simple design, I wanted the boxes to look good and in comparison to a lot of the items on the market, I believe I achieved this. 

I would have liked to experiment a little more with the shapes of my boxes, and also would have liked to do a test of functional packaging like what I designed, vs packaging design that focuses solely on the aesthetics. I also would have liked to look more into the other theories behind consumer purchasing, and looking more into the psychological aspects. I also think that I could have applied my knowledge of consumerism and potentially applied that within my essay, however I wanted to focus more on the design of the packaging rather than consumer behaviour. 

I believe that my essay and practical piece work well alongside each other, as I was able to apply research from my essay to my practical piece. I considered how consumers respond to packaging design, and I took techniques from successful packaging designs and applied it to my own designs.  

OUGD601 - FINAL OUTCOME

FINAL OUTCOME

Once I had finalised the designs for my final outcome, I printed them off and assembled the boxes, overall I am happy with how they turned out and they work well together as a set. In order to capture how the product would look in context, I decided to photograph them with the ingredients that they are supposed to be packaged for (rice and spaghetti). 

To show how the windows worked in the rice packaging, I filled up the box with the rice inside it and they worked very well and I am pleased with the outcome. 

 

 

OUGD601 - ESSAY FEEDBACK (2)

ESSAY FEEDBACK (2)

Intro: introduce the role of designer in intro

• Go back over the beginning section - apply same methods from second part  
• Analyse ideas with own voice and theory to back it up - beginning section
• Got all the points - support it with evidence 
• Explain why the gender things appeal to men/women
• Design examples of how other brands have done same thing as Cadbury - doesn’t need to be food design
• Different example for Pepsi that’s more relevant to the designers role 
• Go through the whole essay as the designers role - whenever possible bring your voice - ‘which could lead to people thinking’ ‘which could impact this..’
• Primary research 
• intro needs to include practical vs aesthetic
• Form follows function - modernist 
• Packaging does need to grab attention - but also just needs to be understood
• Functionality vs grabbing attention 
• Design boards for practical 

OUGD601 - PRIMARY RESEARCH - STUDIOS CONTACTED

STUDIOS CONTACTED

I contacted a few graphic design studios that specialise in packaging design in order to gain a better understanding of a designers approach towards packaging. 

I looked up studios based in Leeds and Manchester, along with one studio based in London. 

Robot Food:

Elmwood Design:

Big Fish Design:

Unfortunately the only studio to contact me back was Big Fish and they gave me an additional email to which I should send my questions to, however I am still waiting on a response from him. 

OUGD601 - PRIMARY RESEARCH

PRIMARY RESEARCH 

In order to gain a better understanding behind the packaging of products, I wanted to get some insider knowledge from packaging designers. I wrote a list of questions to send to some packaging designers so that I could compare it with the research I had found for my essay. This was my list of questions:

(1) Do you research heavily into the brand you're designing when designing something new?
(2) What do you class as successful packaging design and why?
(3) Do you ever consider the theories related to design (colour theory, psychological etc) when designing, or is it just mainly focused on aesthetics?
(4) How much do you compare / copy similar brands? Do you try to stand out or stick with the norms?
(5) What has been your favourite product to work on and why?

I contacted four different studios that I had found who design food and other packaging. I contacted Anna Lamburn from Butterfly Cannon based in London, BigFish studios, Robot Food and Elmwood. BigFish studios contacted me back giving me an email for one of their designers, however I am yet to hear back from him, and Robot Food and Elmwood I have sadly not heard back from. 

Anna Lamburn from Butterfly Cannon did respond and gave me some useful information responding to my questions.


Hi Beth,

- Do you research heavily into the brand you're designing when designing something new?

Yes. We ask the client to provide as much information as possible. We want to know the history of the brand, brand stories, past designs they've done, where the brand is headed over the next few years, competitors, future aims, where it will be sold, how much it costs etc. We need to know the full picture to help us position our design well.

- What do you class as successful packaging design and why?

Successful packaging design should be meaningful, memorable and beautiful (in that order). Every design choice you make has to have a relevant meaning behind it because it helps consumers connect to the brand in an emotional way. Without meaning the brand feels empty and consumers don't tend to gravitate towards it as much. It's the reason some brands are coveted and talked about constantly, like Veuve Cliquot for example (that's a really good reference for an excellent brand strategy).

- Do you ever consider the theories related to design (colour theory, psychological etc) when designing it, or is it just mainly focused on aesthetics?

Hmm, yes I suppose so. We all have good knowledge of typography and the meaning behind certain typefaces, and we also think about semiotics in our designs and logos too. If we can design a logo that has hidden meaning or something to discover then that's great. For example, we recently designed a star logo for a brand and the star is made up of the letter 'J' because the brand name begins with a 'J'. It helps their icon feel ownable to them and not just another generic star. We'd also think about what the colours mean for our brand, but it tends to be a mix of what looks good and feels right, vs. what it means on a deeper level.

- How much do you compare / copy similar brands? Do you try to stand out or stick with the norms?

You never try and copy other brands, it's important to really try and think of original ideas as far as possible. But yes, being realistic, to some extent I suppose we're always influenced by what other brands are out there.

Most brands tend to want to 'stand out but fit in'. It sounds like it doesn't make sense but what they mean is that they want to sit comfortably in their category, but they also want to stand out from the competition. So for example, whisky brands have to be careful when choosing a bottle shape because they want to be instantly recognisable as a whisky to consumers. If you put it in a wide, short curved bottle people often think it's a cognac. Equally you'd probably never put neon pink on a whisky because it would totally alienate the typical whisky drinker. But you might push the boundaries a bit more than usual and put it in a navy and copper bottle like Haig Club. It challenges the norms and stands out from the competition, but it doesn't totally alienate people and lose credibility.

- What has been your favourite product to work on and why?

My favourite product to work on recently is a new skincare brand for teenagers that hasn't launched yet. They're trying to go against the grain on instagram perfect, filtered, flawless faces and offer something a lot more real and honest for teens growing up. (Essentially it's going to be the Glossier for tweens instead of millennials). The reason I love it is because they're trying to shake up the category and they have very good ethics as a company. We're looking at fully recycled plastic going into their bottles and soya inks, vegan formulas etc. We're trying to create packaging formats that feel desirable and meaningful (i.e. something like glossier cloud paint tubes. Blushers that come in tubes that look like gouache paint). It's really interesting to create something with good morals and smile in the mind ideas, it's not just about selling people stuff.

Hope that helps!

Anna :)

OUGD601 - FINAL DESIGN DECISIONS

FINAL DESIGN DECISIONS 

Once I had printed off my final designs, I put together the boxes and when showing a group my designs, one comment was made on how the rice box would be used. There was confusion in the portions for the rice as they suggested that it would be easier to produce a box that showed the inside of the box and you would pour out the rice down to each hole for each portion. This made a lot more sense, rather than poking through each individual hole. This meant that I would need to include some acetate on the inside of the box so that the holes acted as windows that the consumer could refer to when portioning their rice. 

I made a mock up of this and I liked the look of the box, however the holes were roughly cut out and needed to be cut by a laser cutter in order to look more professional. 

Overall I am happy with the designs as they consider the consumers needs and look professional, without being over complicated. The idea behind my designs were to produce something that was practical whilst still looking good in order to be able to compete with the other items on the market. In my research I found that with rice packaging especially, that most packets are dull and plain, so I thought that I would design something that would entice the customer, whilst providing a way that consumers could interact with the packaging more.

Throughout my essay I have shown research into packaging design and how consumers like it when they are able to interact with the item as it leaves the consumer with a more positive response and more likely to repurchase the product. An idea for primary research would be to put this item on the shelf amongst the rest of the items to see if consumers would choose this product over their normal choice, however this depends on whether the design will be printed and ready by then.  

OUGD601 - DESIGN DEVELOPMENT (2)

DESIGN DEVELOPMENT (2)

A suggestion was made to me that I should experiment with different shapes for my box to see which worked best for the design. To respond to this I decided to test out a carton-style box (square). Straight away I preferred the layout for this as it seemed more appropriate for the style I was designing, I adjusted the design to work with the square format and printed it out to make a mock up. 

When I made up the box however, I realised that the additional side which did not feature anything else was not needed so thought I would test out the design as a triangular box, similar to that of a Toblerone. This design worked well and I got rid of that side. 

Once this was printed and mocked up, I thought of another box that could be made in a similar style to manage portion control. Spaghetti pasta is another ingredient that people struggle with when it comes to portions, so I thought I would design a box in the same style for spaghetti. This design was easy as I followed the same format and it meant that I had two outcomes at the end of the process. 

These were my final designs that I had and were ready to be printed properly:

 

OUGD601 - INITIAL DESIGNS

INITIAL DESIGNS

To start the design process, I began with using small illustrations of rice grains and started to randomly place them on a brown background to give me an idea as to what it may look like once printed. I decided that I wanted to take inspiration from one of my images from my moodboard and use a white design on brown paper as I liked the simplicity and effectiveness of the packaging.

After experimenting with various sizes for the grain of rice, I decided to keep one consistent size and randomly place them to create a pattern. I then began to experiment with the type face I wanted to use. I knew that I wanted a bold sans-serif typeface that would be eye catching, but not overly complex. The typeface needed to go with the rice illustrations so I tested various typefaces next to this to see which worked best.

I tested:
Bureau Grot
Azo Sans
Nobel
Vinyl OT

   
I found that I preferred the look of Nobel the most, and when I showed a small focus group these different typefaces, the vote was unanimous and Nobel was voted the favourite.

I then tested the various weights of Nobel and again presented these to the same group to see which they thought was best. Bold Condensed was the favourite here so I began to test this typeface alongside the rest of my design. 

The next thing I tested was the layout of the packaging, I decided that I wanted to have a circular tube as my packaging, so needed to consider this when designing to see which layout would work best.

  

Considering this was going to be stuck onto a circular tube, I thought that having the type rotated down the side would look better, as it may have gotten distorted if it was landscape. Part of this design was to have portions for the rice so that people would avoid food wastage when portioning their rice. Originally, the box was going to include sections within the box with perforated holes down the side that was one portion. When the consumer needed one portion they simply poked the hole through and poured out the rice. So the next thing I designed on the box was the holes and whether to use perforated holes, or numbered holes. The perforated looked far more aesthetically pleasing and worked better with the rest of the design so I went for this option. 

 

OUGD601 - PRACTICAL RESEARCH

PRACTICAL RESEARCH

Existing rice packets are generally quite dull unless they are microwavable packets which usually have a more interesting pattern on them. I found that the generic packaging for rice was a clear bag   with a  small label telling the consumer what it was.
The idea of having a package that has pre-made portions inside appealed to the group of people that I presented the idea to, all stating that they prefer to buy microwaveable rice or 'boil in a bag' rice as they have the portions measured out, meaning there was less food wastage.

In order for the product to stand out on a shelf amongst other rice packets, the product needs to be aesthetic and look different to the generic packets, whilst remaining functional.

Existing microwavable rice:



Existing regular basmati rice: