Sean doing the business at Fine Food NZ exhibition. I'm popping down to check their stand out at the ASB Showgrounds - hope he has some cocktails ready. Ariki makes the most divine Ultra Premium Gin and Vodka - and yeah we think their packaging design is pretty amazing as well.
June 25, 2018 — Comments are off for this post.
Ariki – sharing the spirit
March 11, 2015 — Comments are off for this post.
Eight golden rules for Packaging Design
Whether you are looking at new packaging design or refreshing and updating packaging, here are eight golden rules we take into consideration.
- Understand your market. We conduct a thorough packaging audit of all competitors in your market before we start, and make sure we understand their respective positioning and attributes.
- Trends. We look at what is happening with packaging in other markets, e.g. if you are just considering the NZ, what is happening in Australia, the US, EU or Asia that might give you a point of difference?
- Personality. We ensure you are different and ensure your packaging has its own visual equity and has a strong personality and attitude.
- Life Cycle. We make sure your packaging works at all stages of its life cycle, from leaving the factory to ending up in the user’s hands.
- Protection. We recommend you protect your packaging and design in terms of trademark law and copyright and make sure you’re not infringing your competitors’ rights.
- Pop Out. We ensure the packaging and design works and will mock up how your pack would look alongside your competition. We also try and test your packaging design in store and make sure it really does pop out at point of purchase.
- Future Proofing. We design with tomorrow in mind. We design and create packaging that is in keeping with current market trends and future trends.
- Testing. We promote doing some pre-market testing to make sure your packaging will find a willing audience. Bearing in mind we are careful how we test it as consumers never quite know what they are looking for until someone shows them something new. Henry Ford once said: ‘If I’d listened to what people wanted I’d have built a faster horse!’
With packaging, designers have two key tools to grab the consumers’ attention, graphics and structure.
Packaging graphics must do more than simply look pretty. They must work to cut through the clutter and white noise that is the crowded retail shelves, and attract a potential buyer. Once they attract a buyer’s attention, packaging doesn’t stop working. We make sure the design conveys information about their contents, why they should potentially pay more for it, the ingredients they contain, how to use the product and why the product is unique.
Packaging is also the medium many businesses exploit to convey their brand and often, is the only brand “touch-point” that most consumers engage with. By this we mean they only really see and engage with your brand at point of sale- so packaging is vital.
Important elements for packaging graphics and packaging design include; colour, tonality, illustration, photography & visuals, typography and information hierarchy. Get this right and you are half way there. The rest is up to how good the product performs for the price paid.
