What is Packaging Design?

In a traditional supermarket environment, the focus is on profit per unit of shelf space, rather than the value-for-money, welfare-centric proposition that is so much of what is right about our food system. It’s about maximising sales at the lowest possible cost, with minimal packaging required, packaging which aims to achieve a lower carbon footprint by using less or recyclable materials, or reducing the environmental footprint altogether. This model has led to the production of standardised packs containing a load of identical products. The shopping experience for consumers has not been given the priority it deserves.

An over-reliance on product differentiation can also lead to bland, ugly and uninspiring food on our supermarket shelves. The fact that the product is already so great, the unique selling point is lost. We need to be more creative. How can we tell the story of the farmer who produces our food? By designing packaging which showcases the story of their family farm, celebrating the resilience of small-scale farmers in producing food on a shoestring. Or of a young person who's on the autistic spectrum, and brings an innovative, new idea to the world of food production, like a bakery which makes high quality gluten-free breads for people with food allergies.

Designing packaging

Understanding the context of the product we are designing for is just as important as being creative. For example, it's interesting to think that in modern Britain, a double-decker bus has more chance of going backwards, through a car park, into a parked car, and ending up in a ditch, than a double-decker bus going forwards. It is a truly multi-dimensional concept, which can become more complicated when the supermarket is made up of different sections and sub-sections – online, fresh food, chilled food, deli, dairy, in-store pick-up, home delivery, and so on. Each requires its own unique design requirements. For example, while we may feel good about producing an attractive front end with fresh food logos, we should know that the delivery truck drivers have a much different customer experience, with unpacking the product off the back of the truck. The inspiration for the design can't be from their daily experience with the products, but needs to address their experience with being able to deliver our products to our homes.

And this all ties in with the important considerations of size, weight and materials, not to mention the need to consider the context of the local area. The structure of the supermarket should not be haphazardly imposed, but should be based on building materials which relate to the location in which it is located.

Local vegetables, herbs and salads, for example, can look completely different to the carrots from the supermarket, simply because of the climate in which they grow. What is the road surface like in the area? Does it require additional packing to keep the vegetables fresh? And how does the local climate impact the flavour and aroma of the food?

This emphasis on local and seasonal produce is particularly relevant now, with our increasingly variable weather, and the consequent impact on crops. A busy street can be described as having particular "noisy" characteristics, while a quiet cul-de-sac can be quiet as a mouse. We don't just live in a world of "noisy" environments, we also live in a world where noise isn't always constant, or constant enough to be noticeable. So why not try to design our packaging to be more like a "noisy" environment – adding in some "noise" which makes the design more memorable.

The 'noisy' shopping experience

I was also interested to learn about a new approach to designing packaging for food, pioneered in the US in the 1980s. In the 1980s, there were some signs of life in supermarket food design. First were the planners who came up with the "mother of all vernaculars" – the piecemeal approach to design which promoted an emphasis on individuality and uniqueness. Then there was the move towards the idea of "story telling", where "story" would not necessarily be in text, but rather in more tactile components such as stickers or on the packaging itself.