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As our consumer world changes more and more rapidly in the competitive marketplace, consumers themselves demand and dictate what they want in convenience, product protection, and product delivery, especially in food packaging. Paperboard will remain dominant as a major packaging material for many consumer product categories, but still will compete with flexible materials and plastic containers as manufacturers continue to simplify packaging, reduce costs, and show greater concern for the environment. Recycling and reuse issues are still the driving forces behind the competition of paperboard, plastics, and glass as packaging materials. But there is something about paperboard that is still very special and distinct from other materials. As packaging designers, we’re beholden to paperboard for its tactile quality, its ability to create wonderful sculptural forms, and its almost endless possibilities in terms of closure devices, surface treatments, and production techniques. Our ability to produce fresh and innovative packaging from an “old” material keeps paperboard current.
After instruction is given—including stressing the proper use of tools (T-square, triangle, scoring tool, X-ACTO® knife), the importance of being accurate (with measurements and 90ß angles), and demonstration of the process—each student constructs a folding carton that then is tested for “squareness.” Are the corners square? (Not if it teeters on the desktop.) Does it close properly with all of its flaps intact? Students get a real thrill if they pass the test! This first exercise is the door-opener to the world of packaging design for many students as we catch them in the excitement of creating something three-dimensional in its simplest form. In creating a paperboard folding carton, students see the pattern of the structure and start to understand how things come together from a package’s “deconstructed” state. Thinking in three dimensions is a new demand, and as students become more confident in their creative abilities, the ease and flexibility of using paperboard in so many different ways offers them a great vehicle literally to break “out of the box.” In packaging design education, paperboard continues to be a convenient material for three-dimensional experimenting. Given real-world design assignments, students can create packaging that fulfills design objectives for many consumer products. But, students still must consider what other packaging materials might be appropriate for a given category. In researching consumer needs and desires, potential material costs, and environmental impact, students learn to assess packaging materials in relation to real-world concerns. As design professionals, we address those same concerns. Hopefully, in collaboration with our clients, the manufacturers of consumer products, the packaging supply chain—including manufacturers, the government, and the consumer—can effectively manage the life cycle of packaging materials. In the real world, paperboard continues to offer excellent product protection, provides a great way of communicating product information, facilitates easy transport and merchandising, and affords ease of use for the end-user. Paperboard as a packaging material will hold its own. It’s eco-friendly, recyclable, and it comes from a renewable resource. For packaging designers, new technology ensures that we can use it more innovatively than ever before. | |||||
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© 2004-2008 ST Media Group International. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part is prohibited without consent from publisher.
DECEMBER 4, 2008
1:00 PM EASTERN
This special 90-minute webinar will feature up-to-date insights into the market forces affecting package design and sustainability. Registration for this program is $89.99. Attendees will receive a copy of Packaging Sustainability: Tools, Systems and Strategies for Innovative Package Design (a $49.95 value) by Wendy Jedlicka.
Keynote Address by:
MINAL MISTRY
Project Manager, Sustainable
Packaging Coalition/GreenBlue
COMPASS is an online software tool for packaging designers and engineers to compare the environmental impacts of their package designs.
