This book examines the aesthetics of good package design, and points out in specific detail, exactly what makes each design sing -- what makes it really good.
Four internationally acclaimed designers ...
Package Design Magazine's sixth annual Makeover Challenge is now complete. The popular vote winner, Estudio Ray, is the subject of this issue's Cover Story. The popular vote was also confirmed by a full-service research firm, Hotspex Inc., that specializes in testing and optimizing brand strategies, new product concepts, and packaging.
The four participating design teams this year were Beach Packaging Design (Staten Island, NY), Estudio Ray (Phoenix, AZ), Queue Marketing Communications Group (Chicago, IL), and Rex Design (São Paulo, Brasil). The Casa Visco brand produces traditional style pasta sauces using only natural ingredients—and the fewest ingredients necessary. The company operates out of a plant in Schenectady, NY, and cooks batches of each product with great care, one product at a time.
The Hotspex research was conducted online between September 29 and October 20. The sample comprised of 2,111 men and women regionally balanced across the U.S., ages 18 to 64. The research subjects were primary grocery shoppers (or shared responsibility) who purchased pasta or pasta sauce within the previous four weeks. Each of them was exposed to only one design to guarantee a monadic, "clean read." The designs were tested without prices indicated. In reality, a tradeoff exists between price and all the other dimensions of design execution and buying motivation. Without bringing price into the equation, this study was principally a beauty contest (a test of the appeal and propriety of the designs) as opposed to an evaluation of the perfect life-time partner.
Grabbing attention
In the Attention test, for instance, the shelf contained 55 total facings with the Casa Visco having three facings, representing a 5.45% share of total facings. Competitive brands had between two and nine facings. The Estudio design equaled or outperformed all other concepts in all on-shelf measures. Interestingly, though, Estudio performed poorly on brand recall from a one-second exposure.
Did you enjoy this article? Click here to subscribe to the magazine.