What is Packaging Design? by Giles Calver - Source Quotations.

'In the early days, packaging's role was essentially utilitarian. It aided the efficient distribution of merchandise and presented products in an attractive manner.' (Calver, 2003: 6)

'With the prominence of branding, packaging if often the living embodiment of a brand's values and personality. Time and effort is spent defining these attributes and traits, understanding consumers' perceptions of them, and then manipulating packaging design to communicate them.' (Calver, 2003: 7)

'Packaging design plays a pivotal role in ensuring consumers' perception of the brand is mirrored on the pack.' (Calver, 2003: 7)

'Consumers make a brand purchase just as much as they make a product purchase.' (Calver, 2003: 7)

'For many years certain types of packaging had a role beyond the purely functional. Packaging has become something to value in its own right, something to be displayed because it has a certain cachet.' (Calver, 2003: 8)

'Packaging acquires an importance disproportionate to the product itself.' (Calver, 2003: 8)

'Prestige brands offer the best quality in their class, the notion of quality being rooted in a cultural myth about quality.' (Calver, 2003: 22)

'The bottle of Coke and the memory are inextricably linked, so much so that the bottle - the packaging - has become symbolic of the brand and the experience. (Calver, 2003: 44)

'The packaging becomes a manifestation of the brand itself and, because a brand is more than just the product itself, the packaging becomes a compound of consumers' perceptions, memories and feelings. In effect, a brand becomes a compound of "tangible" and "intangible" values. (Calver, 2003: 44)

'Every market sector behaves in it own way and, over time, this behaviour can result in strong visual language. Some people call this language "sector cues."' (Calver, 2003: 54)

'Brands exist in particular competitor repertories, and these act as the frame of reference within which each brand operates.' (Calver, 2003: 54)

'People have indefinitely different needs and desires. Partly these needs and desires are fuelled by the sheer abundance in our lives.' (Calver, 2003: 58)

'Consumer individuality has resulted in the development of niche markets...each niche market has its own idiosyncrasies and understanding these in fundamental to the design process.' (Calver, 2003: 60)

'You must understand what emotional and rational triggers the target market will respond to if you are to create packaging that communicates a powerful proposition.' (Calver, 2003: 60)

'Environmental concerns affect manufactures and retailers alike. For many they now form part of their corporate responsibilities.' (Calver, 2003: 62)

'Recycling affects packaging design because it influences the choice of materials.' (Calver, 2003: 62)

'Choosing recyclable substrates is approaching the issue from the other end and is often favourable: using recycled substrate is an easier way to demonstrate one's environmental credentials than using a substrate consumers can't recognise as good or bad for the environment.' (Calver, 2003: 64)

'The role of packaging designers in the great environmental debate will aways be influenced by the client, by cost, by individual responsibility, and ultimately the brief, because the brief encapsulates the commercial imperative behind any design project.' (Calver, 2003: 64)

'Material selection is important in controlling consumers' perceptions of a product - both initial perceptions and more considered appraisal.' (Calver, 2003: 112)

'Perceptions can be manipulated through the look of a piece of packaging through the way it feels in the hand. Most people instinctively associate certain attributes - such as quality, elegance, youthfulness, exclusivity, and trendiness - with certain looks and sensations. (Calver, 2003: 112

Different types of materials all coalesce into an impression of a product.' (Calver, 2003: 112)

'The finishing of a piece of packaging can communicate the exclusivity and value of a product.' (Calver, 2003: 112)

'The process of unwrapping the product heightens consumers' expectations and suspends the pleasure of buying or receiving it.' (Calver, 2003: 112)

'There are times when you look at a piece of packaging, or feel it in your hands, and you absorb feelings of quality, exclusivity, refinement, and luxury.' (Calver, 2003: 154)

'Each is used to manipulate consumers' perceptions or engage their senses so that what they see and feel communicate the right message.' (Calver, 2003: 154)