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PACKAGING DESIGN AND PRODUCT BRANDING

Let's design an
OUTSTANDING PACKAGING
for your Product!
write us: objectico@gmail.com

Clever Product Packaging Design is your Marketing Tool

Product packaging design is a very important marketing tool, the first thing your customer encounters in a store is packaging, and packaging is what in many cases determines whether your product will sell or stay on the shelf. Packaging of your product is an integral part of your product design, it should “speak” the same visual language and convey the same marketing message of your product. But in addition to the fact that the packaging design has an even greater responsibility, it should make the packaging design of your product stand out from the rest of the packaging on the shelf. What does it mean to stand out? And what does it mean to be an integral part of your product?

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Clever Packaging Design of Your Product Can Help You Promote: 

  • Raising investments for product development and production - When we present our product to potential investors in it’s branded and designed packaging, this is a clear statement - my product has completed the required development stages, a rigorous design and branding process and is ready for sale. It also emphasizes the thoroughness of your work processes in the product development process and its preparation for production, market research and planning marketing steps for your product.

  • Market research for your product, even before the development and production process - product packaging design allows you to simulate a marketing process even before the end of the product development and production process - and discover the market size for your product. You can even use several different packaging design styles, for the same product, in order to test who is the main target audience that will be interested in purchasing your product.

  • Marketing Campaign for Investing and Selling - Presenting your product in its designed packaging in your fundraising campaign, illustrates the fact that you thought about the product development and design process down to the last detail. Clever designed packaging is a sign to potential supporters of your campaign that your product has passed the required development stages and is ready to be shipped as soon as they order it online. It is worthwhile to focus on product packaging design even in its development stages is not self-evident, sometimes it takes time to internalize the importance of getting ahead of the latter, and thinking ahead in a marketing way.

  • Frontal sales of your product -  it goes without saying, the product can not be sold without designed packaging (except in some cases), however, it is important to emphasize some aspects of packaging design relevant to the sale of the product in a frontal way - i.e. in a regular store: In the store, your product will probably stand on the shelf among other similar products in the relevant department, which means among dozens of well-designed packages. It is very important to visualize this image, to be ready to advance a creative solution that will allow your product to stand out among competing products. The clever packaging design process for your product should start with a survey of competing product packaging, what unites them and how your packaging can stand out among them.

  • Product sales online - Why does a product sold online need packaging design? It is true that in our reality, a significant part of the product search process and product’s purchase has moved from physical shops to online platforms, however, we, thanks to millions of years of evolution, have remained creatures, relying more on physical interaction than virtual one. Precisely for this reason, when the potential customer sees your product on the website in its designed packaging, or it’s 3d visualization, it makes the product more real and reliable in the eyes of the potential buyer..

How to plan properly packaging design for your product

To plan packaging design? What? What can be planned there? It’s just cardboard packaging… with some graphics … This can be one way of looking at packaging design for your product.

We can look at packaging simply as a box that wraps the product or we can approach packaging design as preparing a powerful marketing infrastructure for your product. That is to say, proper packaging design can promote your product sales. If we look at packaging design as a marketing platform for a product, I would recommend doing so by the following steps:

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  • Accuracy of marketing message of your product - here a packaging branding issue comes into play. Even before we start working on packaging design, it is very important to pay attention to the branding. Your product branding process will include: choosing a name for the product, logo design, designing the whole graphic language that will be used in product marketing. Branding your product is a very important issue. It’s role is to "catch the eye and heart" of your customer. Product branding will form the basis for packaging design, in terms of the graphics style, colors, fonts and more. If you have not yet branded your product, you can work on the branding during the packaging design process.

  • 3D packaging design - It turns out that product packaging design does not have to end with a rectangle or cube design... Considering the main marketing message of your product, in the design of packaging of competing products, we can "come out of the square box” and examine more interesting and eye-catching designs for the potential buyer... You can convey your main message to a potential customer, using a unique three-dimensional design of your packaging.

  • Packaging graphic design for your product - After you have designed the three-dimensional form of your packaging, and prepared a two-dimensional layout, you can start working on graphic design of the packaging. Packaging graphic design will usually be based on the branding of your product, and will focus on conveying a main marketing message as well as standing out among the packages of your product competitors.

  • 3D visualizations of the packaging design of the product before the package is produced - a world of 3D visualizations and animations is serving several important purposes at the same time. First of all before we produce the packaging, it is important that we take a look at what we have created so that we can identify potential mistakes in the packaging design, both in 3D and in two dimensions, and correct them before the package is produced. At the same time, 3D visualizations and animations of your product inside its designed packaging are an important marketing tool, allowing you to present your product to investors and potential customers, even before the package arrived from the printing house.

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Technically, product packaging design consists of the following steps:

  • Packaging (and product) branding,

  • 3D design of the package and its’ layout - a very important issue - after designing 3D packaging and before we start working on the graphic design, it is important to produce a drawing of a 3d-dimensional structure, on which the graphics the graphics will be created,

  • Packaging graphic design, which consists of all the relevant graphic elements - such as product logo, images, drawings (also technical once), texts, icons, background visual design, etc.

  • Preparing for printing - here it is very important to understand the requirements of a printing house through which you are going to print the packaging,

  • 3D visualizations of the packaging design before printing - designed to test the visibility of the packaging before printing (and 3D visualizations of the product inside the packaging are made to support the marketing process of the product).

User experience - Interactive Packaging Design

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The most appropriate word for this topic is interaction. Is the packaging design of your product interactive? Can your potential customer start to experience your product while the product is still inside its packaging? How to design a clever packaging for your product?

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We can see many examples of the interactive approaches and product accessibility to the customer. This approach is especially noticeable when we design packaging of toys, games, gadgets, food packaging, electronic devices and clothing. For example, some toy packaging designs allow you to play with the product as long as it is in its packaging, or packages whose special design presents your potential customer with the outstanding benefits of your product.

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There are different types of clever packaging designs, for example those that continue to accompany the product even after the customer takes it out of the package, which stay a comfortable package that keeps your product safe before and after use or those that support the use experiences - this is especially common in food, clothing and decorative products.

 

For example, those kinds of packages with opening forms that turn them into a kind of tray for your product.

Creative Packaging Design Example:

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Does the packaging design of your product fulfill its role only on the outside of the package, or after opening the customer discovers that you continue to communicate with it from the inside of the package as well?

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I recently opened a package of dark chocolate, from the outside the package design was pretty regular, I got no clues about what might happen next. But after opening, I was surprised to find that the inside of the package is designed in a different way from the outside and is very interesting.

While the outer part of the package was communicating in the classical chocolate packaging graphic design language and even a little formal, the inner part - was appealing to the customer's emotion, both in terms of color and content.

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I was clearly intrigued by what was hidden inside the packaging of other chocolates from the same company, and the next day when to buy some more of them. This example of interactive packaging design is only a drop in the ocean of creative packaging design possibilities.

There is a difference between packaging design for the product sold online and one for the product sold in physical shops. For product packaging sold online - more emphasis is placed on the visual effect, and in the process of designing product packaging sold in a frontal way, in addition to the visual and graphic effect, we can also emphasize the sensory effect.

Accurate Marketing Message of the Graphic Packaging Design of your Product

The packaging design of your product is usually based on the branding of the product / company, in terms of colors, graphic language, fonts and more.

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Product branding and graphic packaging design serves several purposes:

  • Reach your target audience in a language they are used to and search for it among all the competitors' products and packaging.

  • Along with proper communication with your potential customer, through unique product branding, you will be able to stand out your product among its competing products.

  • In addition, through accurate branding of your packaging, you can convey to your customer the main message of your product, which differentiates it from competing products.

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Before starting the packaging graphic design and product branding process, it is important to make a quick market research, and identify what design language is used in the packaging branding of competing products. Here are some classic examples:

  • For the packaging branding of medical products - usually choose a color scale that ranges between green-light, blue, light purple.

  • When branding technological products in most cases the chosen color scheme will be blue-black-gray colors

  • Graphic branding of children products’ packaging is characterized by combinations of basic colors - red-yellow-green-blue.

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Choosing Graphic Style of Your Product Packaging Design

After examining the competing product market, we have to make an important marketing decision - should we choose to go with the flow or leave the conventional packaging graphic design style? And here, too, we return to the question - what is the main marketing channel of your product? Will my product packaging stay on the shelf among competing products or will it be sold in my online store? Or maybe most of the sale will be made through a social media campaign or a mass fundraising campaign?

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If we take an example of a product sold in a virtual store:

On the one hand, he won't need to share the shelf space with competitors' products, which means that packaging design of your product will not have to compete and stand out especially on the shelf. On the other hand, precisely because it will not stand on the shelf where there are additional packages that speak the language your potential customer knows, I would recommend using a design style that is common in the field of your product. Thanks to this, when your potential customer encounters your product packaging across the internet, he will automatically associate it with the product he is looking for, thanks to a graphic design style that seems familiar to him.

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In contrast, a product that is sold frontally and stands on the shelf:

It is important to be aware of the type of stores where your product will be sold. If your product will be sold in a big store with a large amount of similar / competing products, it is important to identify well the graphic and 3D language that competitors use for their product packaging design. Once we have identified it, we will, on the one hand. search the way to use the accepted in your products’ field packaging design language, and on the other hand try to stand out.

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Product Packaging Design in 3D

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Usually when we think of packaging design, we imagine colorful packaging with beautiful graphics, logos, slogans, images, etc. Indeed, graphics are very important for the marketing of your product, but ... it all starts with a three-dimensional design of the packaging. 3D design is the first and most important milestone in the packaging design process for your product. The three-dimensional shape of the packaging design allows you to connect to the main concept of your product and already through the packaging structure to convey your message to potential customers. 

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For example: when designing the packaging of a product for extreme fans we can add sharp angles or surprising cuts of the three-dimensional structure of the packaging design, or, another example, tilt the entire packaging structure, as if it is ready and waiting for a moment of a break through.

 Another example, if we want to talk about stability and strength - already in the process of 3D design of the product’s packaging - we can provoke this feeling by, for example, creating a wide base or convergence of the entire package structure, etc.

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* Along with planning a groundbreaking 3D design, it is important to take into account the entire issue of packaging transportation and plan the packaging design for the product so it occupies minimum space in the box / container and thus reduces (or at least does not increase) the transportation costs. This is a super interesting challenge for a packaging designer. It is commonly thought that only a classic packaging design, square or rectangular, is the most economical, but in practice, different 3d forms of packaging design can be economical in terms of the space structure that they will occupy in the box, if well designed and thought through.

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** It is important to remember that along with the marketing potential, the packaging design of your product has an equally important role - to protect your product when transported from factory to warehouse > from warehouse to store > from store to customer. At the same time it does not mean that the packaging of your product should be hermetically sealed from all directions, because even the packaging that has open areas, if well designed, can provide good protection for your product.

3D Visualizations of Packaging Design for Investment Raising and Crowd Funding

Within the puzzle of a product development process, packaging design occupies a significant place, because sometimes it is necessary to do a packaging development and design process even before you have completed the development and production of your product. The common reason for changing the order of operations in a product development process is that a 3D presentation of your packaging design can begin to promote its sales even before it hits the market.

Then come to our aid marketing tools such as: 3D visualizations and animation for a product inside its creatively designed packaging.

When will we use 3D packaging design visualizations?

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  • When we go for a funding round for marketing and manufacturing your product - 3D visualizations that show product packaging design and your product inside its packaging, emphasize to potential investors your seriousness, the vision of important marketing details, and the ability to plan and execute a process of product marketing.

  • When we work on a product’s marketing or online fundraising campaign for a new product - the product packaging design is in the preparation stages, and here 3D visualizations of the packaging design can be very useful for us.

  • When we sell a product in an online store - 3D visualizations of the product in it’s designed packaging will allow you to present the product to the customers even before it’s packaging is produced. Also, it happens that it is easier to present the futuristic 3D imaging of the product in the designed package, than to order a photo session for the product, especially when the package has not yet left the printer.

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Innovative Packaging Design

When we talk about product packaging design, we usually think of cardboard packaging design. Cardboard is really a material which has many important qualities. For example, cardboard packaging is convenient and economical to manufacture, can be recyclable, cardboard packaging can be produced in a variety of forms, they are lightweight and do not take up much volume - which means that they are economical to transport, etc.

But at the same time, there are many other materials that can be used to design packaging for your product. For example: different types of plastics, transparent and opaque, colored and textured. Transparent plastic is usually added to the open areas  in the package and protects the product from damage, while leaving the possibility to see the product in the package.

 

In some cases the product itself is the packaging, and in other cases, companies produce packaging design from unexpected materials. Nike, for example, designed an inflatable nylon packaging for sneakers.

 

Even when it comes to graphic design of the packaging, it is possible to add "volume" and experience through various effects of a special pattern. For example, you can combine a matte and glossy pattern, or metallic or different textures, if it suits the branding of your product.

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Packaging Design Services

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Packaging design service is a field that integrates many varied design niches, such as: branding, 3D design, graphic design, print production, 3D visualizations and more. Before beginning the packaging design process, it is important to understand whether the supplier you have chosen gives you a full or a partial solution to the process.

 

Product packaging design services are built from the same components I mentioned earlier:

  • Packaging and product branding

  • 3D design and layout - an important issue we did not mention before is layout - after designing 3D packaging and before we start working on the graphic design, it is important that we produce a drawing of a two-dimensional structure, which we will start creating the graphics

  • 3D simulations of the product - for the graphics on the packaging (if needed)

  • Graphic design of the packaging

  • Preparing the packaging design for printing

  • 3D visualizations of the package before printing

 

At objecti.co design studio we provide global design services, especially when it comes to the product’s packaging design. We start by developing a design concept for the packaging, taking into account the type of the product, its main characteristics, the points that our customers want to emphasize, and also, examining the market, and learning the main packaging design styles in the product’s field. 

During the process of product packaging design concept development, we also consider the way marketing and selling of the product, and create the design style that will one the one hand stand out in relation to its competing products, and on the other - fit the relevant product’s field.

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