May 27
Inspiration series: Package Design
2008 at 05.27 pm posted by Veerle Pieters
With regular intervals I get e-mails from people that want my advice on inspiration and if I have any tricks to help them. The truth is that I don’t possess any secret that works every time when I am in need of inspiration. The thing is that inspiration is a difficult item to put in words as it mostly doesn’t behave rationally. For example in all these years that I’ve been designing I never had the same item twice as an inspiration source.
So it's not that you put an item in front of you and every time you look at it the inspiration comes. Maybe there are people who can pull that off, but I am not one of them.
Looking for web design inspiration
When I am looking for inspiration for a website I used to browse around in the many galleries from time to time. What I noticed is that there is like 50% chance when doing just that that I'll get frustrated from seeing too much. Maybe a better definition would be over stimulated and as a result I can't set it in motion because of too many things going on in my mind. When that happens I usally switch gears to something completly different like...
Package Design
The thing with inspiration is that for me personally it doesn't need to be related to what I am trying to create. The reason why I talk about package design now is that I always had a soft spot for it. During my last year in school when I was doing my final project I developed a fascination for it and chose food packaging as my subject for the project. Today I'll share some of the great examples I've collected.
B.E.E.
CoffeeTime
Double Cross Vodka
Ecojot
Illy Ready To Drink
Keen Fruit
Little Dish
Motorola Saros
Nano Bio Kits
Orange Hair Defense
Pepsi Can
Remarkable Pencils
Tymes Red Cherie
Zipp Infuzions
Wild Bunch Juice
41served
1
For me, inspiration and even concrete ideas often come when doing something completely different, often times even fully unrelated to my work.
As you say, there isn’t a specific secret or item that you can refer to.
I think it’s more the unconscious mind that sparks every now and then.
I like the package designs, especially the remarkable pencils.
2
Really splendid collection. Excellent idea to look beyond the web to avoid repeating old cliches. Thanks!
3
I like that bottle of Vodka, it almost looks like my cologne. Haha.
I personally draw a lot of inspiration from photography. Finding an image as a starting point for a design usually jump-starts my creative juices.
4
damn! great collection! I love CoffeeTime, Zipp Infuzions and Pepsi can.
5
Hi Verlee, I think the nano bio kits are the best! dunno maybe it’s the brand, the product but to me they look like CS3 boxes containing hi tech bio things, the designer is just brilliant
6
I personally Love the “Little dish”. Cute, modern and great title. I have been noticing how much packaging has been changing for children products - geared more to the adults purchasing them. I think the next big movement in packaging design will be in this area.
7
OMG too wonderful, I am gonna have to buy myself one of those journals!!!
8
Some of your examples stopped me dead in my tracks, like the ecojot and the zipp juice. Thanks for posting these!
9
Thanks Veerle. I’ve sent the link to this article to my girlfriend as she is a print designer and often designs pack layouts as well as concepts etc. - she would find these examples really useful :)
10
I like the package inspiration approach Veerle! Will try that sometime too. I normally look into the galleries or business related websites, but also when walking on the street, or driving through the city e.g. looking out for ideas, colors, shapes etc. Always interesting :)
11
Oh, I think that Pepsi can is one done by Catalina Estrada. I love her work! It’s very colorful.
I’m with you on never the same source for inspiration and the getting overwhelmed with design when looking through those galleries online. I like looking through design magazines, like Communication Arts, too.
Thanks for sharing, Veerle!
12
I like this point,
This is a good line for any designer to have in mind as they start a new project.
Probably a huge reason why your work has a large range of style.
13
I love the packaging, name, and overall concept for the Remarkable pencils. Simply brilliant, and beautiful.
If anyone is in need of more great packaging design, The Dieline Blog is a wonderful place to find it.
14
It is interesting how you can see some trends emerge in the package designs - like the Pepsi can which reminds me of a lot of other things I have seen with all the swirls, even though it is unique for the pepsi can design. I liked that one, the Little Dish, the Zip Infuzions, and the first one was kind of fun even though it is just using type in different colors. Great pictures and ideas!
15
Good Collection Check these links for more packaging design inpiration
http://dzineblog.com/2008/05/packaging-design-inspiration-part-ii.html
http://dzineblog.com/2008/04/packaging-design-inspiration.html
16
A really beautiful collection, thanks for sharing.
I think you can spot a lot of features of these designs that could translate well to the web.
I wish more of the food I buy was packaged like this :(
17
I too take inspiration from different sources such as packaging, i also collect magazines, these are great for keeping up to date with whats going on and as they are structure around delivering information, they make a great place to start looking for inspiration for a web page.
18
These are some beautiful designs, although I wish more of these companies would use degradable packaging. I don’t know how it is in the US? Here in the UK its slowly coming along.
19
L’inspiration, c’est du travail!
20
Such an excellent tip to look outside of typical websites/templates! These kind of make me want to change jobs and work in packaging :) I’ve never heard of Coffee Time but it’s beautiful artwork…I probably wouldn’t throw away my coffee cups when finished if I got them from there!
21
Uaaau astonish collection!
So damn good designed product that I would bought it just to decorate my worktable. Who needs the contents with that kind of clothing :)
22
Great stuff. Bonus points for not including an Apple product (just too easy, methinks). This is a great reminder that inspiration can come from anywhere - I think some folks (myself included) too often look to the same places.
23
great and very cool! I support your point that inspiration needs a large number of references
24
You do fabulous work and are a great inspiration to all!! I love looking at all the different designs you come up with and hope one day to have you create a couple for us.
25
Hi Veerle,
You have some excellent examples of how graphic design makes or breaks the packaging. I really like the ‘Orange hair defense’.
Thanks.
26
This is a truly wonderful collection of great design ideas! Organge Hair Defense and Double Cross Vodka are the ones that particularly caught my eye. Thanks! :)
27
What usually works for me is to listen to my absolute favourite music to obtain inspiration. Listening to your favourite music and doing something different for a while is usually even better.
28
I really like the little dish designs, they look really trendy and the orange hair defense, sometimes I don’t know how people keep coming up with unique stylish designs
29
wow, i´m astonished. Thanks for the inspirations :-)
30
Really nice collection of inspiring designs.
i love the illy-one!
31
Inspiration is a natural process and cannot be forced. You have probably already realized that it is sometimes found in the most unlikely place.
Great collection of packaging. Thanks for sharing!
32
That’s a nice collection :)
33
Really good collection of package designs. Some good tips.
thanks
34
Really great collection!! :-)
Thanks for sharing with us!
(PS Just you might want to change ‘Pesi Can’ to ‘Pepsi Can’;-)
35
Nice ones, I like the Vodka bottle :)
Smashing magazine has just posted an article about package design today.
Coincidence?
36
Very nice collection!
Thanks for the lovely photos.
37
Thoses are great creative designs that you’ve created there! I really like the notepads and the pepsi one =)
38
Thanks for this great little collection. It’s nice to see such a range of different designs, each fascinating in its own particular way.
I, for one, will be paying even more attention next time I’m in the shops!
39
They look great. I love the designs :)
40
I like the CoffeeTime motif.
41
Very nice collection. Great to see a New Zealand company featuring there!