9287u314296-blog

[9287u314296-blog]

Final Product Concept

In terms of packaging, my hand-painted iPhone covers will be packaged very simply. Below is my moodboard for the packaging of my product along with how they will be displayed in the stall. 

Unsure as to what material I will use yet, the phone cases will sit nicely in the centre of a piece of card with the branding displayed. On the back there will most likely be a brand story, and individual product story explaining the inspiration behind the particular phone case. They will then either sit inside a simple box/tray and be displayed individually. This will allow the buyer to be able to see all of the different artworks and show-off the phone cases as a piece of artwork in themselves. 

The next steps in terms of my product design is purchasing the cases online (in bulk which will be more cost-effective), purchasing paint and setting spray, and finally actually painting the cases. 

I found some good videos on youtube that show different ways of doing DIY phone cases. Recommending different types of paints and setting sprays and showing me different techniques of how to apply the artwork and patterns. 

Packaging and brand/product stories will need to be designed after the products are finished. This will be the last step in my product design before I am ready to sell them at the group market stall. 

[9287u314296-blog]

Group Presentation and Feedback

Your final blog post is a post-presentation debrief that gives a reflection of the response that you were given from the class/tutors on your market stall/brand concept. 

After feedback from the tutor and class, the main issue with our group concept is that the branding may not completely fit in with all of our individual products. From here it is important that as a group and individually we work out a solution to this problem. The branding needs to be cohesive and to tie in with all of our individual products and packaging, otherwise the stall will look messy and could bring the individual products down in quality. 

The second point in terms of what needs to be worked on from here is the stall design itself. At the moment we have a concept for our stall, however, alterations are needed to make it structurally sound. Other than the engineering faults, the only other comment with the stall design was making sure we are able to draw customers in. Tutor feedback commented that once the customers are in, they will be intrigued, but it is important we find a way to get their attention from far away to draw them in. 

[9287u314296-blog]

History of Sustainable Packaging

Sustainable packaging is the first step in helping in the reduction of product and packaging waste. When looking at sustainable packaging you need to look at the LCI (increased use of life cycle inventory) and LCA (life cycle assessment). These will guide the future of packaging to reduce the environmental impact and footprint.

From early civilisation and the first ever villages, packaging was all made out of natural products including plants, wood, clay and animal skins. Modern day eco options have an increasing demand. The highest recyclable products today include milk and water bottles which are made out of HPPE 1 + 2 plastic. Then we have paper and cardboard, the newest form of eco options are less cost effective and not as mainstream but seem to be on the rise, including sugar cane paper and vegetable plastics.

Recyclability vs. Sustainability

Recyclables are good for re-purposing, however, use a lot of energy in the process.

Sustainability includes plant-based packaging. Coca Cola has released a new plant-based coke bottle. These types of plastics are bio-degradable, compostable and save roughly 70,000 barrels of oil in production.

The main difference between the two is the use of petroleum which pollutes the environment.

Different types of sustainable packaging:

Sugar cane packaging

Bio-degradable within 60-90 days

Only takes 9 months to re-grow

Bamboo packaging

Fastest growing wooden plant in the world at up to 24 inches a day

Harvested within 3-7 years

Durable

Promotes healthy soil

Completely compostable

PLA – poly-lactic-acid

Thermal bio-degradable plastic

Made from corn starch (US and Canada), tapioca roots/starch (Asia), sugar can (the rest of the world)

Graphic designers have the ability to influence packaging and the decisions that go into packaging. They have the power to promote the value of bio-degradable and sustainable materials.

[9287u314296-blog]

Packaging is Rubbish

As packaging has progressed the amount of packaging has continued to increase. Today almost every product you buy is excessively packaged. The problem is, a lot of customers are more likely to buy a product if it is packaged nicely.

What consumers don’t realise a lot of the time is the fact that the packaging is costing them more money and can ultimately cost more than the ingredient itself. Not only does the packaging cost the consumer more money, but so does the cost of throwing away the packaging.

Over-packaging products is in reality an ethical issue that needs to be looked at, the long-term costs to the environment are detrimental, why package something that doesn’t need to be packaged? For example, fresh fruit and vegetables do not need to be wrapped, packaged and sold in plastic.

The second biggest problem is the fact that consumers aren’t ready or prepared to completely minimise packaging, there is no point in spending money and time on reducing packaging if the consumer is unwilling to buy it. We need to think of ways to minimise packaging in order to save waste, and effectively save the planet.

[9287u314296-blog]

Society 6

The whole concept: branding, packaging and display. Research a major retail brand that sells products in a similar category to what you are thinking of creating for your final product.

https://www.instagram.com/society6/

https://society6.com/cases

Society 6 is a company that communicates with artists around the world to collaborate and print their artwork on to home products. Included in their list of products is phone cases. It’s hard to know what packaging is used through Society 6, because they are based solely online. I would not know what packaging is included in buying a phone case until I ordered one myself.

In terms of display, I think the most work they do in creating an identity could be through their photography and Instagram. The Instagram hardly showcasing the actual products but is full of beautiful and interesting artworks. It definitely creates an artistic feel and leads you to want to see more. It completes the identity of the brand by presenting their core values; original artwork sold as fine prints.

The way that the Instagram is displayed and how the company presents itself online is a way for them to convince the consumer of their credibility and quality products. After looking at the Instagram I believe the customer will be more likely to search for their online shop and hence buy their products over another company that might not display their company or their products in such a way. The feel of the Instagram might lead the customer to believe the product is worth more and continue to pay more for it. The fact that a lot of the products are ‘original artworks’ a consumer might be more interested in owning it.

The Society 6 website compliments the work and products by being quite minimal. It allows them to stand out in a simple and professional manner. It is a way of confirming the idea that the company sells quality, fine prints and compliments the uniqueness of original artworks.

[9287u314296-blog]

Egg drop challenge

[9287u314296-blog]

Group Market Stall Moodboard and Initial Concepts

In the end our group decided the name of our market stall would be called ‘Dandy’, derived from the expression ‘Handy Dandy’. 

In defining a target audience for our market stall we came to the conclusion that it would be university students (18-30 years). Although the individual project is aimed at the NGA target audience, we discussed for the market stall it is a completely different audience considering we are setting up and selling at the university. 

Our colour palette is going to be mostly black, white and grey. We decided this because we didn’t want to come up with branding that would clash with any individual branding of our products. Something minimal and not over-bearing would work best. We want our brand to feel homemade, unique, useable, local and ‘hip’.

[9287u314296-blog]

History of Plastic Packaging

The early days of plastic began with natural plastic materials such as egg and blood proteins, then came chemically modified natural materials (rubber), and finally completely synthetic plastics. Through the use of vulcanisation, Parkesine plastic was invented. It was the first man made plastic (nitrocellulose) and it was invented by Alexander Parkes. Then came celluloid plastic which was coined by Hyatt in 1872 and was extremely successful.

Following this, came all of the types of plastics we recognise today:

Cellophane, early use was to keep foods from getting spoiled or damaged in travel (early 1900s)

Scotch Tape/cellulose tape (1930)

Saran wrap/glad wrap (1933) another type of food preservation

Tupperware (1946)

Plastic bottles (1940s)

Garbage bags

Zip-loc bags (1954)

Lunch boxes, more particularly “character” lunch boxes which were designed with popular characters (1959)

Bubble wrap (1960)

TV dinners, also known as the arrival of ‘convenience foods’

Salad in a bag, yogurt in a tube (2000)

After all of this, today we are seeing an increase in the recognition of how much plastic waste we are producing. In an attempt to reduce this waste, eco-plastics have come in to play. They are bio-degradable and are made from PLA Plastic which is derived from corn.

[9287u314296-blog]

Groovy Moo

Please provide a brief description of your company/brand. What is the brand to you? Is there a story behind it?

Groovymoo is a little home-run business that creates funky handmade pieces; polymer and pompom earrings, macramé hangers and water paintings. It is everything that’s groovy to me, shared with the public. For a long time I searched for the products I now sell; funky earrings that not every white girl in Canberra is wearing, something with bloody pompoms!!! and a painting of a fucking cow. I had my money in hand ready to throw it at anyone who sold this, but negative. So I stopped my search and started creating. Friends started saying my creations were cool and mum said she was proud, so I made moreeeee. And then people started saying they’d buy my stuff so one thing led to another and I created groovymoo. Groovy cause it is. And moo cause I love cows. So so deep.

How did your idea for the company/brand come about?

Maybe answered that a little in Q1, but just because I wanted something so specific that I had to make it meself.

Have you faced any challenges in starting the brand, what were they and how have you/are you trying to overcome them?

Very fresh, but so far, so good business exchange wise. A personal challenge in creating groovymoo was gaining the confidence to put it out there. The pieces i sell are representations of my taste and what I like, to basically allow the public to freely look upon my creations and judge them by buying them or not, fucking terrified me. But at the end of the day I feel a great sense of accomplishment that I’ve put a little piece of me out there in the world in this way.

Where do you source your materials from?

Bloody ebay delivering the goods….. I found that it really didn’t matter what materials you use, it was what you did with them. Putting myself out of pocket to create the exact same product but just with a different more expensive base product didn’t make any sense to me. Save where you can and invest where you should.

In terms of packaging and branding, what materials do you use and if you can, give a brief breakdown of why you package the way you do. (consider logo design, font choices, colour etc)

To display and package my earrings I use a standard double-sided business card with a simple front that emphasises the earrings and a back that provides the buyer with more information and a thankyou. To save time detailing sizes to customers, the use of a standard household sized object such as a business card, gives them a reference point to the size of the earring. Saving money by using standard business cards too, 250 for 24.99 so cant complain about that! Design wise, Keeping my front as simple as possible to keep the attention on the earrings, a white background to capture true colours and simple thin writing to, again, keep the attention on the earring and oh cute the names there if you want J haha the back is keeping in with the black and white theme, more is less amen amen amennnnn. But most of all my earrings should be the most colourful thing on the card not the packaging. I want my earrings to capture someone not the flashing lights.

Are you the sole person behind the brand or do you have help from others? What is your role in the brand?

Just me. I create, I post, I promote, I pay, i like that its my own little thing.

What is your favourite part in the whole process?

Creating a new funky set of earrings and frothing over how its everything i envisioned and I cant find it anywhere else.

[9287u314296-blog]

Product Concept and Moodboard

My initial idea was to use the collection at the gallery and to print the exact replica onto phone cases. After feedback from my tutor and deeper thought on the topic I realised that this probably wasn’t the best solution to my product for the following reasons:

It would cost me at least 15-30 dollars per phone case to be printed online. To make a profit I would need to be selling above this margin, which does not seem plausible seeing as I am selling to mostly uni students to begin with.

There would be copyright issues surrounding the paintings themselves

Being a graphic design student I should be thinking more outside the box and do something a bit more creative than pasting someone else’s artwork onto a product

I came to the conclusion that in order to make the product more unique I would hand-paint them. This is a lot cheaper to make, although time consuming, it will also hopefully give the product an edge above other available phone cases. The reason being, they would be one of a kind!

The cases are still to be inspired by the artwork in the gallery, however, loosely inspired. I will aim to use colour, painting techniques and other small elements from specific artworks and translate them onto the phone cases in a unique way.

To enhance the phone cases, the packaging will be very simple. I plan on having a small blurb or ‘story’ behind each case and where the artwork inspiration came from. Some of the cases will be inspired by more famous artworks which will most likely make them more recognisable to the potential buyers, others will probably rely more on the blurb.  

[9287u314296-blog]

History of the Milk Carton

By looking at the history of the milk bottle/carton and the packaging adventure it has gone on helped me understand once again the importance of packaging in relation to food.

At the very beginning milk was stored and delivered in milk cans which had no insulation, meaning the milk would go sour a lot faster. 

This led to the glass milk bottle which ended up being unhygienic and hard to transport. 

John Van Wormer, frustrated that the milk bottles kept breaking designed the first paper bottle/carton.

Through the creation of the milk carton, this is where the importance of the visual packaging came in to play. You could no longer see the milk (which customers were so used to) which was a bit of an issue for some at first, but the marketers took advantage of the fact that the cartons could now be easily designed in a new way to help the consumer buy the product.

[9287u314296-blog]

National Gallery of Australia Visit

After viewing the collection at NGA - discuss two to three key pieces that have caught your eye and that you can potentially see develop into a product line.

After the visit to the NGA I decided that I wanted to make a product that was practical. At this stage I haven’t completely decided but I am thinking of making either iPhone cases, bath bombs/soaps or possibly tea towels/mugs. 

iPhone covers

The above photos are examples of artworks that I am thinking would look great printed on iPhone covers. Preferably exact replicas if copyright allowed it. 

Bath bombs/Soaps

These next artworks are the inspiration for the bath bombs/soaps. The idea behind these would be to have the products loosely inspired by these or similar artworks. Using colour, and shape mostly to make a creative line of bathroom products. 

Tea towels/Mugs

The last idea I have after the NGA visit is to make a practical brand including possibly tea towels and/or mugs. These would probably have a mixture of loosely inspired designs along with exact replicas of artworks. 

[9287u314296-blog]

Endeavour Tea

What is the company's "brand story" and how is this communicated in the design of the products and packaging?

Endeavour Tea is a Canberra based tea company. Producing fine and specialty teas with the overall goal of providing a unique experience on modern tea blends. 

“We’re all about complementing the versatility of tea with unique, gourmet taste”

All of their teas are prepared and packaged by hand, and one of the most important parts of the process for the company is being able to reserve the flavours in the tea. There are no artificial flavourings or sweetener, only organic, natural flavours.

In terms of packaging, all of this is communicated extremely effectively. There is a consistent design between all of their products, using muted tones and simplistic designs. To re-enforce the organic products the packaging is made out of brown cardboard like material which not only gives the impression but also the feel of organic products. I don’t know much about tea myself, however, it is my guess that this packaging is also really relevant in terms of keeping the products fresh.

Who is the target market of the company? How do you think they address this target market? (ie. use of colour, graphics, type of products)

The target market for Endeavour Tea is most likely other tea enthusiasts with a passion for culinary expertise. It is quite high-end, and therefore uses modern and minimalist designs. If there were bright colours or whimsical graphics used for the packaging it wouldn’t work. Even down to the photography on the website, the whole brand identity is very clean, simple and organic.

What type of packaging does the company use (branded carry bags, tissue paper, branded boxes etc.)? What does the packaging say/make you feel about the brand?

I have only seen the website as per yet so extra packaging in terms of carry bags etc. I wouldn’t quite know about. All of the products displayed on the website are branded with their logo and are extremely consistent which makes me as a consumer believe that the company itself is reliable and of extremely high quality. In their gift-sets the tea comes in a brown box with what appears to be a ‘specialty’ sticker design. Upon opening, the teas within are concealed with a brown light paper sealed with a branded sticker. The whole process of the gift opening is an experience within itself. Having layers of branded, quality products makes the consumer feel happy and as if the money spent was worthwhile.

[9287u314296-blog]

A brief history of Packaging Design

Packaging is used for almost everything we see on a daily basis. However, it does a lot more than simply looking good. Packaging contains, protects, preserves, transports, informs and sells. All of these are completely different steps in marketing and selling a product, however, a lot of products require at least two if not more of the described above. 

The idea of ‘brands’ and packaging didn’t really come about until after supermarkets first began to make an appearance. Before supermarkets, the only way to buy food products was through local grocery stores which only really provided fresh fruit, vegetables, meats etc. There was no need for packaging the products. 

One of the most important and significant aspects of packaging is that it sells the product. As a designer one of the biggest tasks is being able to get the consumer’s attention, keep their attention, and ultimately make the sale. Packaging defines how the consumer views the product and it is not the easiest task making your packaging stand out above the rest. The packaging needs to exude quality for it to be seen as ‘better’ than the other brands (even if the product is exactly the same). 

Essentially, packaging is absolutely key in communicating the brand value to the consumer.