Packaging design is the design of product packaging that helps identify the product, securely contain it, and deliver a product. It is the connection of various visual as well as verbal elements such as form, structure, typography, image, material, colour, and regulatory information with additional design element to make a product suitable for marketing. Its primary objective is to create a structure that serves to contain, protect, transport, dispense, store, identify, and distinguish a product in the marketplace. The goal of packaging design is to meet marketing objectives of a certain brand by distinctively communicating to a consumer the product’s personality or function and in generating sales.

Packaging design is the design of a product’s packaging

In an average departmental store there are many products lined in its shelves. This is the same case with any retail space, both physical and online such as department stores, mass merchandisers, specialty stores, outlets, and online stores. In such retail space all products are displayed and it is the packaging design that gives it life and attracts the attention of the consumers. With the amount of products available in the market, there is intense competition among brands to capture the attention of the customer. This is where the importance of packaging design comes into play: through innovative packaging design, brands are able to differentiate and distinguish their product from others. Through the packaging of a product consumers are able to understand the personality and ethos of the brand, as well as gain an understanding of what to expect in the product. Packaging design serves as an intensive tool for marketing and retail of a product because it has a major role in influencing the cognitive mechanisms of the consumer in buying the product.

Packaging design has become synonymous with product design such that it is not seen as a different aspect of the product, but as an essential part of it. Successful design has the power to create desire in the consumer. Planning, execution, pricing, placement, promotion, advertising, merchandising, distribution, and sales are all part of the mix of activities involved in moving goods from producer to consumer, which are translated through the packaging design of a product. JD Institute’s product design course teaches students the importance of packaging design and its significance as an integral part of product design. The course also encourages students to explore new ways of product design and sustainable packaging design that are relevant in the current times based on people’s choice and needs.

Packaging design: the act of judging a product by its cover