boxes and beyond
Interview - Creative Gaga : March/April 2015
People are not too fond of throwing things away, and in the recycle-reuse
world of today, people find ways to use small little things for their
own unique purposes. Whether it's a tin tea leaves box converted into
a pen stand or gift basket used as home décor, designer Anoop Chalil
believes it's all about thinking one step ahead. Below,
he outlines key points to help create innovative packaging design that helps
the product and its consumers.
Experience comes with an experience.
It can be said that packaging design is more about
the journey than the final creation from a designer's point of view.
It's not just interacting with a product, but also with the people
ad culture behind it.These when combined enhance one as a packaging designer,
giving you more insights and in depth knowledge of the skill.
It's not about doing different things, it's about doing things differently.
Every designer explores their own niche; their
own style. And even though at first look, some designs by
various designers might look similar, where it may look like
a identical tools or techniques have been used,
a closer look reveals the small differences that make
a difference. For instance, it's easy for many to simply
use the align tool in design software to arrange and organize objects.
However, a difference can be made by using a grid system and zooming
into each object to manually arrange them. Such detailed working style
goes on to make a huge impact on the final outcome.
What you keep in mind should be kept in your design.
The look and feel of packaging is predominantly dominated
by the product. However, simple and minimal designs stand out in a
cultured shelf. Before creating innovative solutions, it is important
to keep in mind some simple points to make the journey smooth and
obstacle -free. Staying simple and honest is key and so is
researching consumers, markets and competition before getting
onto designing. Also packaging designs significantly depends on
the type of material being used and hence a good understanding
in such areas is crucial as well. Apart from that, product extension
and legible typography are some more aspects that must be included
in every design.
It's not about who's in the driver's seat, but what car you're driving.
In the design world, everyone would agree that the clients
have the ultimate say. But that does not stop any designer or design from
coming through. It's not easy of course, and is a skill that comes with
experience and confidence. As a packaging designer, it's just not enough
to simply create packaging that looks good; one needs to always have concrete
reasons as to why that is so. Tell the client's why, using well researched
reasons and they will agree with your concept. For example, coming up
with in packaging that could be used as keepsakes by consumers instead
of using plastic bottles that the client initially demanded works a
lot better to not only add to the designer's portfolio but to work
for the brand as well. Effectiveness is key and this way, designers
can have the last word. But this by no means is disregarding opinions
of clients. Designers must also be aware that companies spend two to
three years researching a product before launching it in the market.
Hence, it doesn't hurt sometimes to try and understand where
they're coming from.