Packaging

[Jay McLaughlin]

I'm about to start re-designing the company's corporate packaging, but before I start I want to look at as many different examples of good and bad packaging design.

I've been round a few shops, but the majority of our products are sold in boxes and for some reason this seems to be less and less normal.

Does anyone know of any websites with examples of box artwork?

[morea]

http://www.graphicdesignforum.com/forum/showthread.php?t=12472

http://www.graphicdesignforum.com/forum/showthread.php?t=11337

[balou]

I usually go on a shopping trip when looking for inspiration. What is the product? Is always good to see what the competitors have out there too.

I also subscribe to Package Design (http://www.packagedesignmag.com/) magazine. I find it is a great resource.

[Eraser Nubbin]

Ya, hit the big box outlets, look at your competitors.
http://www.pac.ca/

[greyghost]

Speaking of which - and speaking as someone who has never done a package design but would love to get her hands on such a project - are there templates for those packages or do you get that from the printer? Just wondering how it all gets coordinated?

[Eraser Nubbin]

Not sure specifically what JayMac's project is, but we designed a custom box. First we dealt with the box guys to get the size down, he then provided us with a dieline for or box that we used as a template.
We then setup the artwork to suit the dieline and got in contact with the printers.
The printers printed the things and sent them off to the box makers who took the prints, glued them onto the cardboard and then ran them through there die cutting machines.

[greyghost]

Sounds fun - with a little coordinating going on. Someday I hope to get such a fun project!

[Rocketpig]

Sounds fun - with a little coordinating going on. Someday I hope to get such a fun project!

It is fun... I got to do something similar to Eraser about 6 months ago and it was an interesting experience. It involves a lot of planning beforehand. You really need to know exactly what you're looking for or it can get overwhelming.

[balou]

There's two parts to package design: designing/engineering the actual package and designing the package graphics. I deal mainly with designing the graphics for the packages. I get the dielines of the packages sent to me as illy outlines by the printer or package design engineer. They do the CAD drawings and export them as .ai files and email them to me. I design all my packaging graphics in illustrator and use the CAD drawing as the top locked layer in my document. There's a lot more use of CMYK plus spot colors than straight print designers are used to. There's so many different ways to package things so more than just boxes - tubes with labels, shrink labels, blister cards, clam shell inserts and on and on...

The designer can play different roles in the development of the product and it's packaging - depends upon the customers needs.

[Eraser Nubbin]

Its so much fun, but stressful to. It is really neat to seem something that you designed in a tactile 3 dimensional format. And nothing beats the felling of knowing something you did is on a store shelf somewhere.

At the same time you gotta worry about folds, and shifting and inserts and cardboard strength and stuff like that. I think if you got the right company the actual box makers would help you out with a lot of that stuff.

I recomend making mockups and fold them together so you get an idea of what you are working with. Make sure your artwork isnt upside down on certain faces and junk like that.

[rockem]

one of the leading design firms in packaging
http://www.compassdesigninc.com/

[The_Black_Knight]

Its so much fun, but stressful to. It is really neat to seem something that you designed in a tactile 3 dimensional format. And nothing beats the felling of knowing something you did is on a store shelf somewhere.

At the same time you gotta worry about folds, and shifting and inserts and cardboard strength and stuff like that. I think if you got the right company the actual box makers would help you out with a lot of that stuff.

I recomend making mockups and fold them together so you get an idea of what you are working with. Make sure your artwork isnt upside down on certain faces and junk like that.And if you ever print flexo or some other low-quality process on plastic or foil substrate, there's a whole other world of technicalities to think about. Most designers don't have to think half as much about dot gain, registration, and overprinting as people doing packaging. In some ways I miss printing offset -- create it, send it to the printer, and get back what you thought you would get -- packaging is very different from this, depending on what you're creating. Every bit of text, every gradient, every element has to be carefully thought out before being put on press.

[Amak]

Found a company wich prints packaging. Also boxes+ examples. http://www.moonenpackaging.com/Productinfo/Verpakking-karton/kartonnen-dozen.htm
Only problem: the site is dutch language.

[distruktor]

this is a brilliant book:

its a matter of packaging

ISBN 84-96309-01-0

[beatz01]

Two books that have the packaging templates as .eps on the respective cd:

"Structural Package Designs":

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/9057680440

"How To Fold":

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/9057680394

Don't have them, but flipped through both at the bookstore and they both seem to be quite useful as a template collection.