Tales from the design desk

Posted on: 17th January 2012 in Design Studio Sarah Packaging

Today it is freezing in studio (well, not literally – there isn’t ice forming on the inside of the windows and my diet Coke hasn’t frozen solid but it is distinctly chilly and we’re all huddled over heaters) and I am trying to design packaging concepts. This is fun but complicated. I have the company’s logo to work with, so I have a basic colour scheme to base the designs on, and I have some sample packaging I’ve rounded up to show to the client to see what sort of approach they prefer. I’ve selected some paper stocks that I think are rather spiffy (unusual, fancy paper is like cat-nip to designers. You should see Paula sniffing magazines, hoping for a whiff of Munken Polar, or just stroking a sample book with a wistful look on her face) and am considering the use of screen-printing, spot UV, debossing, embossing and laser-cutting (I would laser-cut everything if I had my way). I have my computer fired up and my Wacom pen in hand and… a blank Illustrator document. I have too many options. This doesn’t sound like it should be a problem, does it? I mean, really? Oh. You have too much creative freedom on this client brief? Poor you. But actually, this is a bigger challenge to most designers than a restrictive brief would be. There is nothing scarier to a designer than a blank sheet and a lack of ideas, unless it is a blank sheet of paper and too many ideas. Where do you start? Well, I have started by stepping away from the computer and dismantling some of the packaging examples. I’ve gone all Blue Peter and created my own piece of origami, mocking up various styles of boxes and sleeves to see what works best, what feels solid, durable and high-quality – all things the items inside will be. I even managed not to slice up any of my digits while doing this (something I managed to do as a junior designer, and which required my then boss to drive me to A&E whilst he tried to avoid looking at the blood and passing out). So now I have my basic packaging sorted and I have a solid, 3-dimensional object to design for, rather than an abstract, imagined form. Now seems like a good time to go back to the computer – I’ve just had an idea. Or two…