The Package Design Process, Part 7

Posted on June 29, 2009 | Permalink

By Lane Casteix

Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6

OK, so what did you get for your money?

What should result from all this is a design that was specifically and carefully created by a team of experienced professionals. The finished design was arrived at through a process that is structured to deliver a solution that should meet the objectives set forth for it. The resulting product is, therefore, much more likely to deliver what is expected of it.

Active involvement in the design process by team members on the client side is desirable but within a context. Someone once said, “A camel is a race horse designed by a committee.” I have seen too many designs start out as a racehorse and end up a camel or even a warthog. The reason for that is the wrong people had creative input or sign-off authority. I believe production should have authority over production related issues and not aesthetics. Sales needs to be aware of issues in the design that might make his job more difficult, and not aesthetics unless they somehow impact the sales efforts. Even upper management must exercise extreme caution in making decisions concerning the design. Very often they are not even in the demographic for the product. The aesthetics of the design, the art part, should be the domain of the designers and marketing, and should always be considered in the light of does it meet the objectives? Does it appeal to the target demo? "Do I LIKE it?", which is a purely subjective point of view, especially if the person is not in the target demo, should not be a significant deciding factor in most cases.

You can always buy something for less, sometimes a lot less, but the buyer must be careful that he gets what he needs, otherwise money spent on a product that is poorly designed to meet its objectives is no bargain; in fact it may actually cost the brand many times more than was saved. Clients like to design vicariously. That is, they can’t design for themselves because they don’t have the talent, training, or experience, but they “know what they like” and can design through someone else. If that is your attitude, you don’t need to pay good money for experienced design professionals. Just hire your niece or nephew who is a freshman design student, buy her or him about $8,000 worth of Mac computer, printers, and software and do the designs through them.

This is not to say freshmen design students can't be very talented people - many are. But talent or even talent + training usually are not enough. An understanding of consumer psychology and both the package production process and the clients equipment, along with years of package design experience are also needed for a successful design solution.

Put the right combination of these elements together in a design team with a managed disciplined process and success is far more likely.