Studio 2 Packaging by Gargee Thakkur
Studio Two Gargee Thakkur PGDPD Graphic Design S1001114 Guide: Immanuel Suresh National Institute of Design
Acknowledgement My profound thanks the following people who contributed to make this project happen: My Family for being supportive and encouraging. My friends for raising my spirits throughout the project. My project guide, Immanuel Suresh for guiding me and making me believe that the project has potential. Faculty member Tarun for giving me insights on tea packaging. Vinita mamiji for sharing her perspective and suggestion on packaging in nature. My friends from NID, Dhwani for her continuous feedback and encouragement, Ketki Lonare for helping me with solid geometry, Lalith for helping me making minute improvements and detailing, Akash Halankar for teaching me shortcuts and other important options on Adobe Illustrator, Vivek Durgam for his feedback on improving the prototype, Abhisek Behra, Mayur Kakreli, Rahul, Diwas and Maria to help me with the photography of the prototypes. Dorjee for lending me his camera. Product design students Shiva Kumar, Varun Shyam and Ashutosh for their valuable feedbacks and design inputs on the mechanism of the prototypes. Patel bhai, Shirish bhai, Hasmukh bhai and Sachin bhai from the NID printing lab to help me with the costing and making the final prototype. To my old laptop Latitude D800 for crashing at the right time so that I could work on the construction solids.
Contents Purpose of Packaging
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Packaging in Nature
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Brief History 13 Purpose of Packaging
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Solid Geometry 15 Order and Space
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Function of Containers
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Choosing a product for Packaging
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Form exploration 26 Package Graphics/Visual language
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Executing the final packaging
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Costing 64 Feedback 65 Bibliography 66
Purpose of the project Project started with the purpose to
learn something entirely new from the previous projects and assignments. Packaging being an unexplored and new area, it had an opportunity to offer me a hands on experience with structure and materials, taking graphic design to a three dimensional space. The project aimed not only at packaging a particular product but also at understanding packaging as a process. We came up with the following after the discussion I had with my guide. Packaging is the outer covering which holds the matter. The peel of fruits and vegetables, even the ‘skin’ on the body is a kind of packaging which holds and keeps all the organs assembled together is also packaging and all man-made packaging is inspired from nature. To understand the whole process of packaging, instead of taking up a product and doing a relative research, a reverse process was followed where it started with research (packaging in nature, solid geometry, etc) which could further help identify problem resulting into a product to be packaged.
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This defined the project proposal: Studio 2 Packaging INTRODUCTION What we consider a package- something that holds, protects and stores its contents. Today’s packaging is more than just a container for products, it’s full-fledged marketing and branding tool. Humans are excited by new ideas and experiences, whether we are searching for a product, surfing the internet, or travel. Packaging is thus the science, art, and technology of enclosing or protecting products for distribution, storage, sale, and use. OBJECTIVE To understand packaging, the process as well as the form, structure and graphics being used to communicate, inform and build image of a particular product.
SCOPE OF WORK
phase 1: phase 2:
Understanding the purpose of packaging, its evolution and inspiration from nature. Questioning basics of packaging.
phase 3:
Understanding packaging at different levels- primary, secondary and tertiary. To understand different forms/structure and exploring various platonic solids. Also understand the relation between space and form.
Come up with a product to be packaged. Study the state/properties of the product and exploring on the material and form of the package. And also parallel to this come up with the form and the image which associates with the image of the product.
Signature
Signature
Immanuel Suresh Studio 2 Guide
Gargee Thakkur
Gargee Thakkur | PGDPD 2010 | Graphic Design|S1001114 | phone: +919601432529 | email: gargee.t@nid.edu | NID
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To begin with my guide suggested the following: Observe ‘Packaging in Nature’ Study the fundamental purpose of preservation; Observe the form and the function of the package in nature and the struggle to communicate. Package has several functions: For example ‘Collapsible packaging (which collapses to create space when the product is out of the package) influence of packaging on human psyche: for example, a toothpaste box over the toothpaste tube which has a purpose of building the trust of consumer that the product is fresh. Then comes manufacturing and costing, etc. Primary, tertiary and secondary packaging. Transportation, property of material. Product graphics
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A mind map of ‘Packaging in nature’
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Packaging in Nature The following natural objects were listed and a their basic function, properties, nature and characteristics were penned down. Skin: a protective organ covering. A barrier against the action of the physical, chemical and bacterial agents on the deeper tissues and contains the special and organs for the various sensations commonly grouped as sense of touch, temperature and pain. Maintains body temperature, colour of the skin, it differentiates, varies on exposure to sunlight or by heredity. Adaptation: Solution crafted by natural selection, to fight specific problems posed by the regularities of the environment. Fruits: as ovary matures, its wall develops to form the pericarp, which is divided
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into three layers. The outermost, the exocarp, is usually a single epidermal layer. Middle layer mesocarp, and inner layer the endocarp. Tomatoes: have a thin peel. The cover itself is edible. The colour of the peel changes communicating the ripening of the fruit. Coconut: has a thick and hard cover. It grows in the coastal areas where it can fall in the sea. Thus the cover makes it float in water.
Walnut: The cover breaks open into two halves. And the fruit inside both the halves is in the cabinet. The negative space of the casing and the volume of the fruit inside together to make a single unit. Ladyfinger: Structure of the lady finger is such that when it ripens, the structure pops opens so that the seeds inside fall to reproduce.
Groundnut: is designed in a way that the texture on the cover helps it to avoid the soil from sticking on the surface. It also has cabinets.
Peas: have a covering which opens like a box (divides into two), and the seeds appear inside the casing. Onion: Layers to it, every time the fresh one appears on removing the peel.
Grapes: have a thin peel on the top (the cover ). It grows in clusters and is attracted with a branch which holds them together.
Fruits and vegetables like apple, bananas and brinjal and potatoes have peel (thin covering) which helps in retaining minerals for a longer period of time. Peel also hints at the ripening of the fruit or vegetable. Change in colour of the peel/skin/rind of a fruit or vegetable is an indicates at the ripening of the fruit.
Pomegranate: by scoring it with a cut of knife and breaking it open, the arils (seed casings) are separated from the peel. And the internal white pulp membrane is such that the seeds remain in place and fit in the cabinet.
Litchi: the cover is roughly textured rind. Corn: a cover on the top, which is easy to remove. And all the grains stuck to the surface makes the form efficient.
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Mind-map of the parallel between packaging in nature and man-made packaging
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Brief history How packaging evolved? Growing economies and societies flourished based on the ability to transport goods around the world, which led to the establishment of monetary system. Egyptians developed glass and gave us 1st glass jar. In China sheets of mulberry bark were used to wrap foods. The Napoleonic government of France has announced it would give a prize of 12000 francs to whoever could develop a way of preserving food for long periods.
This would give them military advantage by giving troops ability to move quickly into new territory without the worrying about the food. Nicolas Appert worked on developing an airtight seal on glass jars. However in England, a patient was granted for the tin can, which also preserved food in the air tight environment. They had mobility in addition to preserve food, and so defeated Napolean in waterloo. Tin cans were used in U.S. civil war before they were available to public, they ultimately allowed the population to urbanize. Later can, bottles and box adorned with memorable graphics were recognizable icons of trust and safety.
Urbanization to industrialization A significant shift occurred in retail in the early 20th century. A change in grocer’s role as product gate keeper. The development of self service stores gave opportunity to the customer to involve and
make choices. This revolution allowed brands to complete unobstructed with consumer. Thus role of packaging evolved into a vital marketing tool in selling products. Packaging have become a 3-D ad for brands. The life span of a package is now evaluated by consumers and seen as part of the total brand experience.
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Purpose of Packaging Containment: How will the package hold the product. Liquid, Chemical, Dense, Solid, Perishable Pharmaceuticals, Exceedingly small, Oversized items, high tech, high-cost All have unique needs and various demands on container to secure them. Security: Does the product require special tamper evidence or sanitary and freshness, measures? Protection: Packages must address strength and protection needs in the product by product manner. Convenience: Can the package make the product easier to transport, display, open, close, us or re-use? Information: Package bears the responsibility of informing the consumer of what a product is for, how to use it and when, how not to use it and why not. Marketing: Speaking the right visual language on the pack that connects intellectual and emotionally with the consumer is vital to getting a product noticed, desired purchased and remembered.
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It started with the need of preservation. Preservation came from scarcity. The purpose is to preserve. For example raw mangoes are cut into pieces soaked in salt and oil for preservation (primary level). Then the pickle is bottled (secondary Level). Similarly the basic purpose of packaging is preservation. So the product goes through a certain process and it has layers of packaging which are attuned to each other. - Immanuel Suresh (Guide)
Solid geometry
Since the project aimed at form exploration, random solids were constructed. The idea was to construct various forms and finally narrow it down to a form which could be refined further for a product. But it was important to understand the fundamental structure before random form exploration. Also the form had to have a purpose. Suresh asked me to first understand the relationship between space and form and study basic solids.
Explore taping the equilateral triangles together to get a solid shape then look at squares, then a combination of squares and triangles and so on. It all started again with taping the squares, triangles together to understand form. A book called ‘Order in Space’ by Keith Critchlow was later referred to understand the space and form relationship.
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Order and Space ‘Order and Space’, a book by Keith Critchlow, describes the minimum requirement or condition and the fundamentals which it takes to form a solid. Following were the important aspects from the book which were essential to develop form later.
Space is the precondition of all that exists.
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Without predetermining the most appropriate form for the ‘point’ we can take a minute version and see what volumes it describes by tracing it systematically through space. If a point moves in an unchanging direction, from a starting position, a trace of its path describes a ‘line’ – the so-called second dimension. The trace of the third change in direction describes a ‘solid’, the third dimension. There are three fundamental ways in which three moves might be made: the first and the most economical one provides the prime solid, the tetrahedron-the four
faced pyramid; the second and the most commonly used results in the sphere. The tetrahedron, minimally structured, is the strongest of these solids, being most able to resist external force from all directions. It has the largest surface area for volume of all polyhedral. The sphere has the least surface area for volume and is most suitable for restraining internal forces.
Tetrahedron
Cube
The cube represents the transitional phase between the two, and is a ‘sociable’ or close-packing unit.
The economic unfolding of the dimension of space
Cube and tetrahedron rotation on axis Any form however random, if completely rotated on its centre of gravity eventually describes a sphere at its extremities, hence the sphere is the most economical form that is non-exclusive. The sphere thus seems the most suitable form to give to the ‘point’ as it has complete rotational symmetry and is least ‘biased’.
Sphere rotation on axis
If a line is considered to have a spherepoint at each end, then the line represents, at a minimum, a displacement of the diameter of one spherepoint which has moved at least its own diameter. The spherepoints cannot be closer. Two spherepoint with a line between their centres, to represent their fundamental relationship.
The minimum condition to describe a plane is that three spherepoints should be set in any other relationship than in a ‘straight’ line. Applying the most economic conditions,
each spherepoint being its bodily distance from its neighbour, we describe a plane- resulting in an equilateral triangle between the centres of the spherepoints.
Adopting the same criteria and following the same procedure, we describe ‘solid’ space with the fourth the final spherepoint, the result is a four-faced pyramid, the tetrahedron.
Now adding one more spheres in the interstices result in other solids like octahedron, icosahedron.
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Platonic solids: Icosahedron, Octahedron, Cube, Tetrahedron and Dodecahedron The tetrahedron, the octahedron and the icosahedrons together with the cube and the dodecahedron make up the five regular solids known as platonic solids. In Euclidean geometry, a Platonic solid is a regular, convex polyhedron. The faces are congruent, regular polygons, with the same number of faces meeting at each vertex. With the few basic structures, the next step
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was to construct solids one inside another to understand form and form relationship. An octahedron fits in a cube, where the vertices of octahedron correspond to the face of the cube. Such relationships between two forms where the vertices of one correspond to the faces of the other are dual polyhedron.
The octahedral group outlined with edges, with eight additional spheres in the interstices Dual of a dual polyhedron gives the original polyhedral. Later on studying more about it gave an understanding of snubbing and truncation. Ketki, an under graduate
student at NID, explained the difference where truncation is removing the vertices till 1/4th of the edge of the polyhedral and snubbing is when the vertices diminish reaching
the mid-point of the all the edges giving the dual of the original polyhedron. And the solid created after truncation is called Archimedean solid.
Truncataced cube The Tetrahedron, outlined on its edge, with a second set of spheres introduced into the interstices; eight sphere in all
Snubbed cube
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Functions of Containers My guide suggested me to research on the different stages that packaging travels through. I referred a book called ‘Fundamentals of Packaging’ which describes the role of packaging at different levels. Containers are divided into two broad types according to their used. These are the outer or shipping container, and the consumer units or retail container. The purpose of these containers is to contain and protect its contents during transport from manufacturer to consumer. Where an industrial package involves the consumer could be another manufacturer, and not the man who ultimately uses
the finished good. Function is to provide a convenient quantity or number of articles in one unit, which will be purchased by the ultimate user in a retail shop or store. The outer or shipping container is complementary to the inner or retail unit. Shipping container may include: Cushioning material, blocking and bracing, water vapour barriers or other ancillary materials which may have prime function in the protection of article. eg for foodstuffs, container must be of such nature that it does not contaminate the product either by introducing toxic material into it. Or by providing a source of odour which may flavour the food.
From the above reading I inferred that the process of packaging is interrelated and sometimes two or more decisions like visual and form are made simultaneously since they both coexist. There are several factors which are to be considered for example material of the product, its correlation with other material to be packaged in. This complex process was further explained by Suresh in the following discussion.
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Egg shell holds life. The shell is the
It started with the need of preservation.
primary package provided by the nature
Preservation came from scarcity. The
itself. The interference (distribution and
medium is to preserve. One such way
consumption of eggs) by humans leads to
was to preserve mangoes. Raw mangoes
the development of secondary package
are cut into pieces soaked in salt and oil
which is the ‘crates’. The crates are then
for preservation (primary level). Then
put in the shipping containers for further
the pickle is bottled (secondary Level).
distribution. Since package changes at
Similarly the basic purpose of packaging is
every point, from manufacturers to
preservation. So the product goes through
distributor, distributor to retailer and
a certain process and it has layers of
retailer to consumer, it is important to get
packaging which are attuned to each other.
a rough idea of how the function of each package at varies different level.
- Immanuel Suresh (Guide)
Modularity in design Another important aspect is stacking the packaged together in one unit. A package is attuned with the further level of packaging. A large amount of money is spent in distribution of the package to various places. And the cost is affected with space occupied in the shipping containers during transportation. Thus form of the primary package has to synchronize with the secondary packaging, to
fit maximum number of pieces. Another advantage tightly packed product in the shipping container then the chances of damage because of shaking and wobbling become less. Since the shipping containers are cuboids so most of the packaging happen in boxes (cubes, cuboids), or even other forms are in a combination of two or four which again ends up in a cuboidal solid.
This is called modular design or “modularity in design”, it is an approach that subdivides a system into smaller parts (modules) that can be independently created and then used in different systems to drive multiple functionalities. This design makes it convenient and saves space since number of modular package within the area fill up all the space leaving no void/gap.
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Choosing a product for packaging A list of products and the process of distribution of the same was made; the idea was to understand different levels (primary, secondary, tertiary). A list of products and the process of distribution of the same was made. A segregation was on the bases of the following: Material and state (liquid, solid, semi-solid, gaseous) Size of the product (micro to macro) Type of product
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Later a basic outline of different levels a product travels with layers of packaging (primary, secondary and tertiary packaging). The idea was to roughly go through the process and see if there could be some design intervention in the packaging of any of the products.
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Clothing Crackers Glasswares Crockery Kitchen Utensils Computer/Laptop Cellphones Glares Bags Shoes Threads Paints Crayons Brush/Palette Glue CD Guitar Drums Jewellery Toys Board games
Cosmetics Soft drinks Lotion Creme Talc Perfume Shampoo Conditioner Soap Deodrant Shaving creme handwash Nailpaint Lipcolour Toothpaste Eyeliner Hair oil
Beverages
Soft drinks Wines Beers Alcohol Liquor Juices Organic Sherbet Coffee Tea Tea bags Milk Water
Food
Pastries Cake Papad Frimes Chips/wafers Noodles Butter Jam Milk Powdered Milk Drinking Chocolate Toffee Cheese Bread Biscuit Mithai Milkmaid Dryfruits Mouth fresheners/ Mint indian Snacks
List of products
Swimming Costumes Men’s wear Women’s Kids wear Hats Gloves Scarves Accessories
Pharmaceuticals Band-aid Tablets Tonics
Others
A categorical division helped to give a better idea of the product to be taken for packaging and also the material to be taken to explore form. I overviewed the basic process of distribution and the for packaging takes up at different levels and came up with the following. Toothpaste: I examined the secondary package of toothpaste. The box over the tube is for the psychological reason, indicating that the paste is brand new and fresh. The question was why it could not be a tetra wedge package instead which would save the space at tertiary level. Later on further research on the same concluded that the circumference of the tube before sealing is cylindrical. And after it is sealed, the pack is flat only from the end. So the volume of the paste throughout the tube remains almost the same. Thus the cover could have been a ‘tetra wedge’ pack. From the perspective of cost-cutting and saving paper, the outer flaps of the packaging of 80gms of butter seemed unnecessary. Keeping it minimal, butter
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A rough idea of how the products travel. could be put in the butter paper and a label could have been for surface graphics. (diagram). A research was required in the background (number of covers produced, distribution process, etc). But this was not solving the purpose of the project (exploring form) to that extent. I also looked at the packaging of coke cans which are cylindrical in shape. The cans leave voids in between when put together in the shipping container. A cuboidal form
of the can could have saved that space. The pressure in the soft drink due to carbon dioxide pulls the surface to form a cylinder. I tried to questioned various other packaging. But because of the modularity, barriers of cost, material and product properties, exploring form had its limitations. An interesting form could be a part of display and help consumer make a choice at the retail outlets, but as a designer it was an important aspect to look that in which way the value addition is happening, It was unfeasible to add value at a monetary level or adding more to the waste and come up with some random complex structure. Also the existing form of the package was good enough and a new package would be to make it more complex products which do not come in a package. I had a dialogue with my guide, where he explained that there could be different domains where design could work. Packaging could be userinteractive, promotional,
Milk packaging process sustainable, to change or enhance brand image, to bring a psychological change or innovative. Now since the project aims at exploring packaging, so it could be categorized under innovation. I came
up with the idea of gift package for flavoured teabags. The target audience were the elite-class who would find the package in the stores at the airports and hotels
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Form Exploration The prime idea was to come up with an aroma locking system for tea-bags and an aesthetically pleasing and innovative form. For the aroma-locking system rather than going for more complex form, I chose to seal tea-bags in sachets. This gave an oppurtunity to explore form more freely. Now the
Sachets for tea bags
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concern was the secondary packaging. A few sketches were made before developing a three dimensional model. Rather than constucting a random form I thought that the form should be such that when it is opened the sachet should pop out or fall out or the form resembling the tea pot instead.
Sketches of the form
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Exploration of the form inspired by tea pot
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Exploration of another form at the initial stage
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After a number of sketches, a step further, three dimensional forms of few of those sketches were developed.
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Further simplified dummy of the form achieved
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A life size prototype of the packaging.
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A few ideas/changes on paper before developing the form further
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Different slits were explored to achieve a more simplified form. 36
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Another form was simultaneously developed. The idea was to come up with a form where the tea bags fall of or pop out when the box opens or the lid is pulled to open the box. Here are the sketches and prototypes of the another form.
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An 2-D structural drawing of the protoype; a small prototype on the right
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A life size prototype was made to get an idea of how many sachets it can capacitate and to test the mechanism. The problem faced was that the flaps were coming out of the slits. The sections needed a locking
system so that the flaps remain inside. The problem was discussed with a product design student Varun Shyam, he suggested to add a tongue to restrain the flaps from coming out as show in the figure.
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Package graphics/ Visual Language Simultaneously I started conceptualizing the look and feel of the surface, exploring the surface graphics corresponding to the package design. Since the product taken was tea bag for the brand ‘Taj mahal’ under the parent brand brooke bond, I decided to take inspiation from the monument ‘Taj Mahal’ itself. Patterns and jali in the Islamic architecture of the monument were taken as inspiration for the graphics.
Patterns at the Taj Mahal
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Developing Patterns
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The patterns developed seemed very complex. The pattern looked very chaotic on the package surface, thus the pattern was simplified further.
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Visuals for the flaps
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mas�l�
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Colour coding the flavours
Bergamot orange (main ingredient of earl grey tea)
Cardamom
Ginger
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darjeeling tea
Taj Mahal
A patch for the type to come on the top of the sachet. The form was an inspired by the archs at the Taj Mahal.
Taj Mahal
Taj Mahal
Taj Mahal
Earl Grey tea
Ginger tea
Cardamom tea
Taj Mahal
Taj Mahal
Taj Mahal
English breakfast tea
Masala tea
Darjeeling tea
A simplified pattern on the surface of the tea bag sachets I had a word with my classmate Dhwani about the visuals, she pointed out that the geometric pattern with the patch on it do not come together thus they do not look like a unit. I explored a few more visuals to come up with the final graphics.
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Taj Mahal darjeeling tea
masala tea
Taj Mahal
Taj Mahal
Taj Mahal
English breakfast tea
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English breakfast tea
The form later evolved to this finally. Simultaneously the pattern at the back was also reworked upon. The variety in colours represents the variations of light reflecting from the Taj Mahal at different times of the day.
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Ginger
Ginger
Earl Grey
Earl Grey
Cardamom
Earl Grey
Few explorations of the flaps; on the right are the final graphis with the colour code of the flavoured tea.
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English Breakfast
Darjeeling
Darjeeling
Masala
Ginger
Cardamom
Earl Grey
English Breakfast
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Since the form developed was inclined to the front, the frontal graphic were not visible. So I again examined the form and thought of doing the reverse (mirror image) of the same form.But one of the main purposes of the form to be at an angle was to let the sachet fall off when the flap is pulled. So now I had to rework on the mechanism. I talked to a product design student Shiva Kumar and discussed on the idea. We came on the conclusion that a four sided section for each flavour could be made so that the back side of the flap could push the sachets to fall out. A flap at the base was attached for the section to move. A hinge at the end to stop the section at an angle.
A flap at the back to push the sachets to fall out
A rough sketch of the prototype
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Mechanism trial before executing the final prototype
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Executing the final packaging
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Images of the final options
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Images of the final options
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Costing A costing estimate for 90,000 boxes Die making Die punching for 1000pcs Die punching for 90,000 pcs
Rs. 500 500/1000 x 90,000 = Rs. 45,000
Pasting per piece Pasting for 90,000 pcs Printing for the boxes Four colour+1 spot colour (gold) Printing for 90,000 boxes Printing for sachets Four colour printing cost
Rs. 15 Rs. 15 x 90,000 = Rs. 1,35,000
Total number of sachets per box
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Rs. 1000 (for the both components)
Rs. 2000/3000pcs 3000/2000 x 90,000 = Rs. 60,000 Rs. 4000 per 3000 sachets 30
Cost of four colour printing of 30 sachets
3000/4000 x 30 =Rs.22.50
Total cost of the boxes Cost of 1 box
1000+45,000+60,000 = Rs. 2,41,000 Rs. 2,41,000/90,000 = Rs. 2.66
Cost of a box and 30 sachets
= Rs. 25.16
Feedback I received positive feedback from my guide and my batchmates. I would like to mention an important one though, one of my friends Vivek suggested that rather than adding a slit to open to pull out the section, you can add a semi-circle bulge. That semi-circle buldge could work as to seal the packaging as well as later used as a lever to pull the section
The image above is of the packaging designed and the sketch of the suggested change
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Bibliography Order and Space// Keith Critchlow Fundamentals of Packaging Package Design Workbook// Steve Dulins, John Silva http://www.thedieline.com http://lovelypackage.com
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