Why would Microsoft parody its own custom packaging design? Watch this version of a rebranded Apple iPod.

The Packaging Design Agency:

Avoid beauty contests when it comes to package design.

Product Package Design: Determining the business value of new ideas.

Package Design Consultants: Strategies for going Global.

Best Packaging Design: Principles for the Technology Market.

Packaging Design Ideas: Effective reseller techniques for a product makeover.

The Packaging Design Portfolio: When packaging design detracts from the perceived value of a brand.

Packaging Design Solutions: How to deal with superiors who say "I don't like it" and little else.

What is a dieline anyway?

What is the package design process?

BigCity creates a new design standard for Bell Sympatico.

Holiday gift packages at the LCBO look for a home.

Working with packaging design consultants - the packaging design process

A step by step guide to who does what when.

The client prepares a marketing brief.
This document outlines the product and its market, marketing objectives of the packaging, branding considerations, time lines and other deliverables.

The marketing brief is reviewed by the packaging design agency.
The packaging design consultants examine the marketing brief and come back with questions and clarifications. The packaging design consultants then prepare a Design Brief. This reiterates the relevant information in the marketing brief and provides an overview of the creative direction, research and testing, approval process, time lines for concept and production, and other relevant outcomes (as in the illustration below). The purpose of the Design Brief is to clarify what business objectives the package design will fulfill.

Product packaging design process

The packaging design agency produces design ideas and concepts.
These concepts and designs are shared between the two teams, and are the result of package design research. The research is divided between qualitative and quantitative research methods. Concepts and designs are usually in the electronic pdf stage. Once several are chosen as being the most viable, 3D mockups are made and used in further testing.

Final designs are chosen.
The package designs must now be formalized. The marketing team provides the agency with final copy for all branding, value propositions, and legal.

The final designs with final copy are signed off and approved by the client.
The hi-res files of the packaging is turned over to the production team/company in charge of fabrication, printing, and fulfillment.

About the Author: Tim Robertson RGD represents several of Canada's most distinguished design firms. With over 20 years experience in branding and packaging design, he has been featured in Direct Magazine, the Design Management Review, and the Summit Awards.

DesignFirms Link Exchange

The five second
package design rule

The average shopper only spends 5-7 seconds scanning a label on the shelf on any given day. So no matter how much copy you have put on the package, it probably won't be read. more>

The meaning of color - it’s not what you think

The idea that colors have intrinsic and timeless ‘meanings’ is mistaken. Advanced research in the domain of product marketing indicates that shoppers do not identify particular colors with particular abstract concepts (e.g. the color red with the concepts ‘hot’ or ‘fire’). Rather, the ‘meaning’ of particular colors hinges entirely on the context in which the colors are being used. more>

Working with packaging design consultants - the packaging design process

A step by step guide to who does what when.

The five second package design rule

The meaning of color - it’s not what you think

The five second
package design rule