Packaging Design

Effective product packaging has come to play a uniquely important role in modern marketing strategy. The successful operation of retail outlets such as supermarkets, department stores and even garden centres is massively dependent on the appealing presentation of individual brands. To attract customers, packaging must convey an informative and seductive image which will both identify and promote the product within the package. For the retailer and the distributor it must indicate standard details, such as consignment. destination, and necessary legal requirements. And to satisfy consumers, it must also protect its contents. Thus the creators of a package must now design with an eye on its entire life-cycle. from the ideals of promotional concept to the practical demands of transportation, storage, and display. In a fast-changing world where fashions in technology, graphics, shape and materials are always moving on, packaging has become one of the most exciting and challenging

areas of design. Modern designers have access to a vast array of new packaging techniques and materials. Imaginative graphic design-the use of colour, lettering, images and logos – remains at the heart of their profession. But they must also keep pace with the potential and constraints of the many new materials and processes being developed – as well as the special inks and printing processes required to complement these materials-in products that range from food and drink to pharmaceuticals and cosmetics, from squeezable-plastic ketchup bottles to recycled shopping bags and ecologically-friendly aerosols.

Packaging Design looks at the skills, the working methods and the products of today’s packaging designers in the UK, Europe and the United States. It examines and illustrates the two main aspects of their work-graphics and physical packaging-in all its guises, from label design and design for printing to computer-aided design, and the vast creative scope innate to container design. For students, designers. product managers, and consumers with an interest in the process of preparing products for the market, it will be an invaluable guide, an up- to-date source for both reference and inspiration.

With 210 illustrations, 200 in colour