Evaluation

I have thoroughly enjoyed both the theoretical and practical elements to this brief. The essay allowed me to explore something I was already interested in but in more depth. The content of the essay provided a clear structural plan to base the design around. Outlining and explaining the key characteristics of successful supermarket packaging design gave me the understanding of why a package design is successful, the practical element allowed me to put the new found knowledge into action.

The point of designing packaging for air was to prove that people buy into the packaging rather than the product. Air was chosen because it is the closest thing to nothing, it cannot be seen and is available everywhere for free! This fact really helps to reinforce that it is the packaging design selling the product rather than the need or desire for the product alone. The design considered all the points raised in the essay and used them as a guide to create the packaging. Other books were refereed to later to cover things that weren't researched for the essay like typography. 

The outcome produced is a 13cm x 9cm box containing a 500ml jar. The design style was clear and consistent across the two different forms of packaging. Overall I am happy with the outcome as the design has been carefully considered to promote the product and I think this shows. The quality of the print is good, the colours have maintained their vibrancy from digital to print. Annoyingly the ink has cracked along the folds which I tried to preempt by laminating the design, however it doesn't notice too badly and the resources I have had to offer has been limited.

Over the whole module I have managed my time well, setting myself deadlines within the brief to make sure everything was completed it plenty of time. Doing this also allowed me to organise a photography studio which meant I could take good quality photos of the final outcome. 

If I had more time I would have liked to explore more into different stocks. A textured stock would have made the quality of the product look better and would have been nice to experiment with. I will learn from this and give my self more time next year to experiment with how stock affects the design of packaging. I would have also liked to test the product out in a supermarket environment to see how it fits in with other products and whether it receives any attention from potential customers. It would have been interesting to see whether the key characteristics worked. However to do this I think I would have needed a bulk of boxes because the shelf would look bare with just one mock up.

I have learnt so much about package design since starting this brief and my intrigue and interest in the subject has grown since. This module has really clarified what I want to specialise in; packaging and branding. I will be able to use CoP 3 to develop on this further and really get to grips with the theoretical and practical elements of package design.