PACKAGING I

There's literally so much to say about packaging design - it's impact on myself and, not to be dramatic, the world. But I'll focus on how it has affected me.

Packaging design is the field I started out in over a decade ago. I thought for sure I wanted to be a world-renowned packaging designer forever. In college, I would buy something just because of the box it came in. It felt like every item I would purchase was based solely on the design. And bad packaging? I couldn't look away. Designing and redesigning in my head all the things I would change... Judgy b*tch, I know.

But then I actually became a working, paid, packaging designer. And my fun little internship projects were out the window. This was, to say the least, a slap in the face. I can only speak for my experience, but being a packaging designer is/was HARD. It's beyond time-consuming, tedious, millions of revisions, confusing instructions, die-lines changing after finishing a project, multiple people needing to review and sign-off, unlimited opinions, constantly waiting on photos or info, brand guidelines to uphold but keep fresh, font size minimums but too much text, painstakingly updating nutrition label ingredients that are impossible to spell, etc. And you have to come up with something creative, innovative, and beautiful!

Then you're the final person to review and send those outlined and embedded files off to the supplier to print. I've never worked on a packaging project that didn't seem to have an impossible deadline either, so you're rushing and stressed. The pressure to not make a mistake and cost the company money by needing to fix errors was massive for me. Because inevitably, there would be mistakes that everyone reviewing, including myself, wouldn't catch. And it's a bit embarrassing. I would put all of the blame on myself. The point is definitely not to compare design to *insert any stressful job here per se, but just to say that it wasn't what I had envisioned, and started to impact me negatively (waking up in a panic every night at 2am). It just wasn't for me and maybe seemed easier for my coworkers, I'm really not sure. I should ask.

I started to realize great packaging design is really something to applaud. And "bad" packaging, I don't know, maybe there are a ton of factors that went in to why it may have missed the mark (subjectively). But I really don't judge the designer ever. That shit is hard.

The next time you're out and about and notice some beautiful purchasable artwork that started out 2D and made it's way to 3D, think about how cool that is. And thank the designer in your head, because they definitely wanted to throw their computer out the window while working on it at 2am to make a deadline.

Anyhoo, below are some designs that made me say a little, "hell yeah" when I saw them.

Packaging was where I started, but it’s not the only design that makes me stop and stare. Logos do it too (here’s my logo design inspiration), and so does just about any graphic design with a good color story.