Package Design?

Playdo

New Member
For those of you who work in the package design industry, I'd love to get an inside view to the following questions.

What is the design process of package design and how and when do you fit into it as a Graphic Designer?

Do you ever get involved in the design of the actual packaging or is it solely the graphics?

What job title do you search for when looking for work? Graphic Designer? Packaging Designer? Something else?

Thank you
 
Thankyou chaps. Haven't been called a 'lad' in a fair few years..probably one of the senior members on here!
Will try to reply tomorrow.
 
Hello. Generally, the physical packaging is already 'designed' and requires only the graphics to be created and applied. A lot of my work is for retailers where the product and the packaging are bought from a supplier together with some form of print spec i.e a product in a particular box with 3 colour print and a varnish is $X.

Alternatively I'm given stock products (mainly in the skincare/health and beauty fields) and asked to effectively make them different through the use of screenprint or labelling. There is some flexibility with trims and cap colours and it is possible to colour the whole component through the use of Masterbatch colours, but these require a minimum quantity of tens of 1000s for cost effective production so is generally out of reach for smaller companies.

I have designed some physical packaging (namely for Kevin McCloud's designer homewares range at Debenhams some years ago where I was the Design Manager) but projects like this are rare due to investment and the time to actually develop something new.

My background is product design and so the marriage of 2D and 3D works well for me and means that I comfortable with projects from a small cosmetic jar up to retail interior scale work.

I call myself a graphic designer specialising in packaging graphics and retail brand identity. (Forgive the shameless linking!)

Hope this helps...wasn't meant to sound like a showcase!

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'Silver' probably is more flattering than 'senior'...will bus passes still exist when we're that old?
 
Hi Paul,

Thanks for the post. I've only just seen it as I didn't get an email notification.

So the majority of your work focuses on only the graphics and not the packaging form. My background is product design too, which is why I'm looking for a career that marries the two sides together.

Generally, the physical packaging is already 'designed' and requires only the graphics to be created and applied. A lot of my work is for retailers where the product and the packaging are bought from a supplier

In case I've misundersood, the retailers generally buy from the supplier's stock, to match their product, rather than designing it specifically for their product?
 
Yes, mainly applying graphics to off-the-shelf items.
Retailers will buy a product with it's plain packaging for a set price. The packaging is fit for purpose as it is designed to house/packaging the product itself.
It's quicker to buy a product with it's packaging and print than to source/buy each process individually from different sources (who all have to be approved). There's also the time it takes to transport the product and its packaging between the various suppliers and potential language barriers. Obviously this process still occurs (no-one has everything under one roo, but they are effectively 'one supplier' as they all work together.
 
Yes, mainly applying graphics to off-the-shelf items.
Retailers will buy a product with it's plain packaging for a set price. The packaging is fit for purpose as it is designed to house/packaging the product itself.
It's quicker to buy a product with it's packaging and print than to source/buy each process individually from different sources (who all have to be approved). There's also the time it takes to transport the product and its packaging between the various suppliers and potential language barriers. Obviously this process still occurs (no-one has everything under one roo, but they are effectively 'one supplier' as they all work together.

I see. So am I right in saying that there are different retailers buying the same product and packaging and then they send it to a graphic designer to make it look different?

Eg a retailer buys toothbrushes, with their custom fit plain packaging. They then send it off for the graphics.
 
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