5 Essential Steps for Effective Packaging Design
The process is a very necessary feature in success of anything and more so when it involves many minds. At this point, it becomes even more important in packaging design, as many departments have to be involved in developing the right design.
A good design is one that makes the product look great on
screens and also looks great on shelves.
Packaging design is an essential marketing tool, which can
make or break a product’s success. Follow these 5 steps to create packaging
that sells:
Define Goals and Strategy
Firstly, you should consider starting by assessing your current situation and addressing any fixes needed before going ahead with the designing process. This will ensure smoother, more effective process of designing. Start with clarifying what packaging is meant to do. Factors such as;
- Target audience and buyer personas
- Product details and unique selling proposition
- Brand messaging and visual identity
- Sales channels (retail, e-commerce etc.)
- Shelf stand-out and visibility needs
- Legal and regulatory requirements
Articulating strategic goals at the beginning ensures that
your designs are on brief for your target buyers.
Planning & Researching Phase:
What are the activities involved at this stage? Planning
enables branding teams as well as designers understand the steps that they will
take toward achieving their project goals; they need to decide how much money
they will spend, who should do it on their behalf? And what kind of projects
they want.
In preparation for planning, you may first research about
what is happening in the industry regarding package trends analysis. You can
seek inspiration from other sources but remember you need to plug gaps through
your own design.
Understand who you are targeting; talk about colors, shapes,
textures or typography
that attract them then what feeling would like them feel? This information
contextualizes aesthetics as well as UX decision-making.
Concept & Design Stage:
Time to have some fun: ideating and designing! Brainstorm
creative concepts around typography, color, materials, shapes, imagery and
textures. And design with different ideas in mind several options.
Work through a lot of iterations on graphics refinement,
product visualization, copy writing as well as information hierarchy and
structural details; make sure that it is consistent with your brand style
though. It must also be shelf appealing.
Review & Refine Stage:
Take comments from your stakeholders and testers regarding packaging designs. Find room for optimization based on suggestions made.
- Further attention to the following should happen:
- Brand consistency and visual identity
- Legibility and information hierarchy
- Structural functionality and durability
- Emotional impact and aesthetics
Keep refining until you have an awesome design which is
surprising others.
Prototype & Test Phase:
To determine whether the pudding has been cooked properly or
not one needs to make prototypes then test them! Look at things such as;
- Appearance, feel and quality perception
- Structural integrity/performance
- Simple shipment stacking opening accessibility
- Shelf presence/visual impact
Real users should give their responses thereby identifying
any usability issues; iterate further in order to refine. This fine tuning
should go on till your packaging meets business as well as user needs.
A strategic yet creative process of building standout packaging
designs involves defining goals, researching extensively, ideating freely,
refining meticulously, prototyping rigorously; this will definitely bring great
results by making your packaging attractive enough to investment seekers.
Comments
Post a Comment