prause

AIC 2010, Color and Food From the Farm to the Table Interim Meeting of the International Color Association Mar del Plata, Argentina October 12-15, 2010

PALETAS CROMÁTICAS COMPATIBLES PARA ENVASES DE ALIMENTOS NATURALES Autores :

Carlos PRAUSE1, Susana CARIOLA2 Facultad de Arquitectura, Diseño y Urbanismo, Universidad Nacional del Litoral.

Postal address: Centro de Estudios Morfológicos, Facultad de Arquitectura y Urbanismo, Universidad Nacional del Litoral, Ciudad Universitaria, Paraje El Pozo, 3000 Santa Fe, Argentina E-mails:

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cprause@fadu.unl.edu.ar; scariola@fadu.unl.edu.ar

ABSTRACT Luís Meléndez (1716-1780) Pintor Español del siglo XVIII. del bodegón.1-2.

The idea of packaging is as old as human civilization, since the transportation and storing of products has always demanded putting them in containers and boxes, as well as the protection of food from dust, rain, humidity and other deteriorating agents.

Food store.

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Old packaging.

ABSTRACT El mundo del envase. Ma.Dolores Vidales Giovannetti.

UAM Azcapotzalco. Ed. Gustavo Gil. Barcelona, España.

Similarly, the influence of colour as an identifying and communicating element of the “attributes” of those signs, acquire today a central role, key in the visual communication of the product image.

In the case of consumer goods, particularly food, the packaging is not only a simple wrapping for protection, but it becomes a mean of communication, used to reflect the product “image” that is intended to transmit to the consumer.

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ABSTRACT Examples of shapes and sizes.

Consequently, the packing size, shape, colour, the typography for the texts and materials used in its elaboration,

become of key importance making the packaging its own seller and becoming sometimes the connection with the consumer, since it anticipates what the

consumer thinks or awaits from the packaging, generating a sort of “metacommunication� since it expresses what the packaging contains or supposedly contains.

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Container + Product + Marks

ABSTRACT Color + form + material

There are many factors in our reality, either psychological or visual, that determine the appropriate choice of the packaging colour, shape and material, according to the adopted commercialization strategies.

These factors become more important day after day, and they vary according to the cultural traditions and tastes of the different societies.

Food packaging design has been one of the disciplines that has been more related to the graphic industry in the last decades.

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ABSTRACT

We intend to investigate this issue and show some incompatibilities

Design decisions as product identity, such as MILK and WINES. Color White natural-color of the pack: White, Black, Red, Yellow

that certain design decisions have, regarding the colours used to

represent the natural shapes and the resulting colours of the production of the printing standards.

We will also offer some possible

solutions to these conflicts which occur between one system and the other in the colour treatment.

Non-Alcoholic Wines: Color: Red, Pink and White Color package: Black & White & Red and Green

It is also the objective of this work to offer some ideas to the designers providing some conceptual and visual tools, establishing a series of compatible chromatic palettes between the suggested colour and the depicted colour.

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Product Color: Red-erase white wine: Green / packaging Color: Red and White and Red-Green

ABSTRACT

Some design decisions on the packaging for the same product.: From color-WHITE MILK Color of mark on the packaging: (ALL)

In this opportunity, we do not intend to deal with the packaging colour as an industrialized product material, but we want to deal with some particular colour features in the graphic messages and its relations with the possibilities of reproduction, taking into account general types of materials for packaging or, even more

important, the covering materials which are the visual media for the messages.

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ABSTRACT

Some design decisions on the packaging for the same product: soft - chemical components (Coca Cola) and fruit juices.

Colors of packaging for Coca Cola: Red, White, (black Gray) Other Blue and Orange.

It is in this particular issue this paper deals with, where product identity, laws of marketing, technology Fruit juices. Assorted colors for the brand.

constrains, rhetoric, persuasion among others, coexist –or not.

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ESTHETICS OF PACKAGING

Certain categories of intervention are established, matching the types of packaging materials in

products of daily, periodical and occasional use. This classification corresponds with the variables of “cesias� , since they determine

sensory differences in the perception of colour in accordance with the concerning topic. In this opportunity, the following

classification is used:

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Containers with different 'cesias "on display together

ESTHETICS OF PACKAGING

1. Transparent We can observe that in transparent packaging for fruits, vegetables or pasta, the representation of colour comes from a natural fact, since the same product is the one being exhibited in its most pure expression; consequently, the perceived colours will be a combination of the colours of the product interacting with the proposed colours for the visual message of the container.

The harmony or incompatibility should be seen in the combination of these two semantic fields.

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ESTHETICS OF PACKAGING

2. Translucent In this case, its own composition produces a combination of overlapping

colours due to the semitransparent veil covering the product.

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ESTHETICS OF PACKAGING

3. Opaque This kind of packaging requires a

colour treatment to access the identity of the content, in addition to photos or 2D or 3D illustrations to exhibit it. In this case, the

participation of the designer and the areas of knowledge presented in this work are of essential importance.

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ESTHETICS OF PACKAGING

4. Reflective Similar to the previous material

as regards the treatment of colour, but it has interesting possibilities in its colour display due to the reflexion of light over

the covering material.

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ESTHETICS OF PACKAGING

5. Blended Combinations in pairs of the materials mentioned above.

The characteristics aforesaid for each type also apply here.

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FOOD COLOUR AND IDENTITY

One of the basics conditions of colour in packaging is that is has to

be “useful� and support its shape in the identification of the product. In now a days society the -visualidentity already established its value as a basic need of every entity or item.

There are some categories that have a direct influence in the colour

choice of the graphic proposals for packaging, where there has to have:

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FOOD COLOUR AND IDENTITY

• The brand´s identity: the shapes that represent the production company and/or the logo of the product.

• The product image the leading companies establish a colour associated to its identity assigning to it meanings that may refer or not to the food they represent.

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FOOD COLOUR AND IDENTITY

• Selling requirements Visibility, readability and unity in its writing, with the objective of facilitating its localization and recognition.

• Semantic association Basic relation between the content and what it is displayed. Colours help attract the buyer´s attention and provide information related to its content.

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FOOD AND MATURAL COLOURS When we talk about the “natural” characteristic of colour, we make reference to a semantic distinction in the faithfulness of the colours of the product, which can be verified mainly in photographs, where it is presumed that colours do not suffer alterations.

We can also include any type of image manipulation that does not modify the original colours.

Consequently, it is necessary to talk about colour "naturalness" in the packaging graphics, since it is in this instance –the design- where decisions which are usually contradictory are taken.

This is why we start with a classification of the degrees of naturalness:

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FOOD AND NATURAL COLOURS

Natural food colors, natural (unprocessed)

• Natural (unprocessed) If we accompany this

classification with a palette of colours, we can establish a range of “natural colours”, that is, those which are “from the same nature of the product”…

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FOOD AND NATURAL COLOURS

Chemicals in natural food colors (industrialized)

• Processed (manufactured) ...and “processed colours” or artificial, since it would fit a sort of logical and semantic response.

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FOOD AND NATURAL COLOURS

Synthetic dyes:

Natural dyes Nº CEE TIPO

PRODUCTO

COLORANTE PRINCIPAL

C.I

Riboflavina

This classification is essential to determine the colour fidelity as regards its “naturalness”, because

Amarillo Limón

E-102 + E-110

Amarillo Huevo

E-102 + E-110

Amarillo Mimosa

E-102 + E-110

Riboflavina Fosfato

Anaranjado 1787

E-110 + E-124

Naranja 2000

E-110 + E-124

Curcuma

Curcumina

Annatto

Norbixina

Annatto

Bixina

B-Caroteno

Colorante Marisco

E-110 + E-122

Pardo Chocolate 648

E-102+E-124+E132

Marrón 4004

E-110 + E-151

E-160a

Pimentón

Capsantina

E-160c

Xantofilas

Luteina

E-161

Caramelo

it is a highly positive attribute in advertising

Verde 519

Verde Menta 1869

content, since it is related to “freshness”, “healthy”, etc.

E-102+E-131

Verde BB2228

E-102+E-133

Verde Menta 20

E-102+E-132

Verde Menta 23

E-102 + E-131

Verde Menta TV66

E-102 + E-131

Verde Menta 839

E-102 + E-131

Violeta 952

Violeta 1027/1

Negro 952

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E-102 + E-133

E-122 + E-151 E-124+E-131+E151 E-102+E-110+E-124+E-131+E151

E-160b

E-150

Clorofilas-Mg.

Clorofila-Mg.

E-140

Clorofilas-Mg.

Clorofilina-Mg

E-140

Clorofilas-Cu.

Clorofila-Cu.

E-141

Clorofilas-Cu.

Clorofilina-Cu

E-141

Rojo Remolacha

Betanina

E-162

Cochinilla

Carmín

E-120

Cochinilla

Acido Carmínico

E-120

Antocianinas

Enocianina

E-163

Antocianinas

Antocianina de zanahoria

E-163

Carbón Vegetal Blanco Titanio Amarillo Coninor E-172 Rojo Coninor E172 Rojo Coninor R/E172 Negro Coninor E172

E-153 Oxido Titani

E-171

Oxido Hierro

E-172

Oxido Hierro

E-172

Oxido Hierro

E-172

Oxido Hierro

E-172

FOOD AND NATURAL COLOURS

We will now try to establish which are the “natural colours” for “natural

food”, within a general category, according to its origin:

• Mineral (whites, browns, sepia, yellows)

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FOOD AND NATURAL COLOURS

• Vegetable (greens, reds, violets,

blues, oranges, yellows)

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FOOD AND NATURAL COLOURS

• Animal (reds, whites, pinks)

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FOOD AND NATURAL COLOURS

We would like to focus on the ones classified according its dominant colours, since they present substantial differences even if they look similar, such as: Fruits , Vegetables, Meat, Dairy products.

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FOOD AND NATURAL COLOURS

The colors in fruits

• Fruits (reds, yellows, oranges, greens, blues, lilaceous)

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FOOD AND NATURAL COLOURS

Colors in the Plant

• Vegetables (greens, yellows, oranges,

red beet, cabbage, eggplant)

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FOOD AND NATURAL COLOURS

The colors on meats

• Meat (beef, pork, poultry, fish)

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FOOD AND NATURAL COLOURS

The colors in dairy

• Dairy products (milk, cheese, creams, by-products)

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FOOD AND NATURAL COLOURS

With this classification we tried to list what we are interested in highlighting about the colours semantic attributes regarding “naturalness� and the different packaging graphics that sometimes are not in harmony with the election and treatment of colour.

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FOOD AND NATURAL COLOURS

For these considerations, we find

that certain packages contain colours according to the “sensations� they produce, and this generates contradictions and

opposing or wrong interpretations in the identification of the content.

We are including some examples considered incompatibles (or at

least inharmonious) from different semantic fields.

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NATURE VS. COLOUR PSYCHOLOGY

Having in mind the products general categories mentioned before, we think that packaging must contain colours that represent the semantic attributes of its content; therefore, the colour palette of its design should match them.

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NATURE VS. COLOUR PSYCHOLOGY

Some incompatibilities can be found.

For example, earthy colours are a good match

for items of mineral origin, but for fruits, vegetables and dairy unprocessed products this colour can be associated with “oxidation”.

Therefore, it can be said that not all the

assessments made about “colour psychology” are effective, since for some food items the colour white can indicate “purity” but for others it is linked to its "fermentation”.

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NATURE VS. COLOUR PSYCHOLOGY

Black is a sign of “excellence” for wines but it is hard to attribute this meaning to other food items.

Packaging serves as a container, but it is also a product identifier.

This last function cannot be achieved by what it is called the colour “personality” if it is not directly related with the product attributes it identifies.

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NATURE VS. COLOUR PSYCHOLOGY

We would like to make it clear that this particular approach is directed towards graphic productions of illustrations or backgrounds and not towards photographic images (or transparent packaging), since in those cases, the photography captures and reproduces the colour that the product reflects, which -except in the treatment of some relative variable- are not the result of the

designer´s “colour decision-making”.

It is also important to mention that the colours of the graphics depend in great extent to the percentage of the area that takes up in the packaging as a whole.

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CONCLUSIONS Mislabeling: makes health claims ("Fresh, healthy and tasty") can not be made without accompanying information.

“…colours have a meaning that makes the

objects attributes stand out. They can be general attributes, when colours mean the same for every individual (the sky, the trees, the earth, the sun, blood), since

colour categories are socially constructed.”

(Goodwin, 2000).

It can be inferred that colour associations

are the result of some type of experience with the product, and thanks to the contact with it, the person acquire the capacity to relate colour, form and function.

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Properly: Cantos Blancos, is the only brand with proper labeling in all samples. They are also the only ones, along with the other three samples of the same brand, bearing the date on each egg.

CONCLUSIONS

It´s very interesting the idea that, “…when the consumer observes similar products, he generalizes this learning and gives similar attributes to products looking alike in its appearance even if he recognizes them as being from different brands” (Warlop and Alba, 2004; Miaoulis & D'Amato, 1978).

There are many cases in which the image and colour of the leading

brand are used as a generic identifier of the product.

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CONCLUSIONS

It is very common to confuse packaging of different categories because of the similarity of the codes, and this strengthened the need to use standard codes for the category.

Assertive reading is given not only by the packaging´s shape and material but also the image and colour consistency.

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To conclude, we would like to say that the goals of our work -because of the extent and diversity of the topic-, cannot be completed in this speech, but some solutions are given and it is complemented with another work displayed in poster format, named “Natural Colours for Natural Food�, where we depict a series of compatible colour palettes for natural food packaging.

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Thanks