Visual recognition wrapped: Student explorations of product packages as brand messengers

DS 62: Proceedings of E&PDE 2010, the 12th International Conference on Engineering and Product Design Education - When Design Education and Design Research meet ..., Trondheim, Norway, 02.-03.09.2010

Year: 2010
Editor: Boks W; Ion, W; McMahon, C and Parkinson B
Author: Karjalainen, Toni-Matti; Heiniö, Sanna; Rahe, Ulrike
Section: EXPERIENCES WITH COURSES/EDUCATION
Page(s): 168-173

Abstract

Design for visual brand recognition is of increasing strategic importance for companies. Specific focus is often on product packages that have strong communicative power. The package is used to inform about the product it covers or supports, to point out specific product qualities and, in specific, to create unique brand experience. In design education, new practical approaches are needed to engage students in exploring the possibilities of visual brand building and creating communicative and distinctive package solutions. In this paper, a student project is described and discussed to illustrate how package design can be approached from a brand communication perspective in the educational context. In addition to the overall description of the project and its phases, we briefly discuss one of the cases more in detail. In this case, a student group analyzed premium chocolate brands and developed a new fictive brand in this category by paying specific attention to the communicative qualities of the product package. We found that such a practical approach towards brands and their diverse aesthetic and symbolic qualities can provide a fruitful learning experience for design students.

Keywords: Brand identity, package design, design education

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