Top ten concepts of packaging design:

Principle 1: Positioning the brand

Positioning the brand means clarifying the core values ??of the company and its brand.

When positioning your brand, you must not underestimate the understanding of today’s consumers. You must repeatedly ask questions about the product that you may encounter, such as: Is this a unique value positioning? What are the main product advantages? Can it lead to lifestyle optimization? Can it help consumers gain convenience?

When doing product extensions for a new brand or an old brand, packaging designers must always keep in mind: attracting consumers' attention is the most important goal.

Principle 2: Explore the competitive environment

The purpose of exploring the competitive environment is to use differentiation strategies to promote brands and products among similar products, and empower consumers to choose this product. product rationale.

Before starting the design, you must first understand what kind of market this product can enter, and then conduct in-depth research on the retail market and ask questions from the perspective of the brand owner: Who am I (the brand)? Can I represent something tangible? Can I make consumers trust me? What makes me different? Can I stand out among my competitors? Why do consumers choose to buy from me? What is the greatest benefit or advantage that I can bring to consumers? How can I create an emotional connection with consumers? What suggestion techniques can I use?

Principle 3: Establish a hierarchy of information

Organization of information is a key element of positive design. Broadly speaking, the information level can be divided into the following levels: brand, product, variety, and benefit.

When designing the front of the packaging, you must analyze the product information you want to convey and rank it in order of importance. Establishing an orderly and consistent information hierarchy can help consumers quickly find the products they want among many products, thereby achieving a satisfying consumption experience. Saving consumers the time they spend shopping to select products should always be a top priority for designers.

The Vaska laundry brand uses transparent, clean design and minimal product benefit descriptions to convey a special and concise message to consumers on the front of product packaging.

Principle 4: Create a focal point for design elements

Does the brand have enough personality that its products can gain a foothold in the market? not necessarily! Because it is also necessary to clarify the most important feature information that the product wants to convey to consumers. So packaging designers need to consider, if the product is to have certain qualities, what is it? Then, place the main information that highlights the product features in the most eye-catching position on the front, and the secondary information is arranged in order below it.

If the brand of the product is the focus of the design, consider adding the brand slogan next to the brand logo. But it should be noted that the use of a brand slogan does not happen overnight, but must be used for a long time, because if you look for inspiration again, it will often lead to a break in the design. Use shapes, colors, illustrations, and photography to reinforce the focus of your brand. Most importantly, allow consumers to quickly find the product the next time they shop.

Principle 5: The Law of Minimalism

Less is more, this is a kind of communication wisdom.

Language expression and visual effects should be kept simple, and the main visual cues on the packaging should be ensured to be understood and accepted by ordinary consumers. Successful packaging design is like dancing with shackles. While you enjoy a certain degree of freedom, you are also restricted by certain rules. For example, there should not be too much information on the front of the package. This requires deleting redundant information and limiting the length of marketing promotions and descriptions of advantages.

Because in general, descriptions with more than two or three points will have the opposite effect. Too many advantages descriptions will weaken the core brand information, causing consumers to misunderstand the product in the process of purchasing products. Product loses interest.

Remember that most packaging will add more information on the side. This is also where shoppers will pay attention when they want to know more product information. You need to make full use of the side position of the packaging and do not take it lightly when designing. . If you cannot use the sides of the packaging to display rich product information, you can also consider adding hang tags to let consumers know more about the brand.

Principle 6: Manage Party A’s expectations

If the Party A company wants to put all information or marketing promotion content on the front of the product packaging, the designer needs to remind them that the packaging does not Not the same as advertising.

Designers can use the repeatable design and development process to make reasonable refutations, test and supervise the process, and use intuitive auxiliary tools to demonstrate the process and explain how the design in the process is expanded and streamlined. of.

It’s also important to get everyone’s agreement before the design begins. Quickly set up three to five options to establish a common language for discussing goals. Before starting the design, you should also anticipate Party A's problems and requirements, and prepare response strategies in your mind in advance.

Principle 7: Use visuals to convey value

Using a transparent window on the front of the package to show off the product inside is almost always a wise choice because consumers want Can obtain visual confirmation. In addition, shapes, patterns, graphics and colors all have the ability to communicate without the need for words.

You can make full use of elements that can effectively display product attributes, stimulate consumers' desire to shop, establish consumers' emotional connections, and highlight product quality to create a connection with a sense of belonging. It is recommended that the images used contain elements that reflect the characteristics of the product and incorporate lifestyle elements.

When consumers today decide on a product, they often consider how well the chosen brand’s values ??fit with their own values ??and lifestyles. Creating a "reason to believe" brand can boost sales of the brand's other stand-alone products.

Guideline 8: Pay attention to the unique rules of various types of commodities

No matter what kind of retail product, its packaging design has its own rules and characteristics, and some rules need to be followed meticulously. Some rules are important because doing the opposite can make emerging brands stand out.

However, for food, the product itself can almost always become a selling point, so food packaging pays more attention to the realistic reproduction of food pictures in design and printing. In contrast, for pharmaceutical products, the brand and physical characteristics of the product may be secondary - and sometimes even unnecessary. The parent brand logo may not need to appear on the front of the package, however, it is very important to emphasize the name and purpose of the product. Necessary.

Nevertheless, for all types of products, it is advisable to reduce the clutter caused by excessive content on the front of the package, or even adopt a very simple front design.

Principle 9: Don’t ignore the findability and purchaseability of the product

When designing packaging for a specific product of a certain brand, packaging designers need to investigate how consumers When purchasing such products, make sure that consumers will not have any doubts about the product style or information level. It is always important to remember that color is the first element of communication, both cognitively and psychologically, followed by product shape.

Writing is important, but it mainly plays a supporting role. Text and typography are reinforcing elements, not primary brand communication elements. Findability may be reflected in a brand-first strategy, or it may be given "creative" elements to products to attract consumers in shopping malls.

Affordability refers to a consistent system of color, shape, material, or an orderly arrangement of different levels of information on the front of a package that guides new and returning customers to the specific items they want. product. If there are multiple product lines under the parent brand, consider developing a good/better/best strategy.

These strategies clearly and concisely demonstrate the value proposition of each product. For example, the relative strength of the shelf display effect of different products in a product line can be reflected by the visual "intensity" of different colors or the saturation of a certain color.

Guideline 10: Develop future brands Expansion plan

If a brand is malleable enough to expand into other product categories, then the brand also has core brand identity. After that, a successful brand platform can develop into other areas by increasing product categories or broadening product lines.

Apply graphic design to new products or new product categories, test the multiple functions of packaging design, and focus on a large number of imaginative products and extended product categories. Rather than just being limited to the top products, ensure that the packaging of various products complements each other, so that all types of products are considered to be one brand and each individual product is easy to identify.

You can even redesign the packaging for the core product line, but you need to be careful to avoid creating platforms that have no ductility and plasticity, so as not to limit the future development of the brand.