Let’s say you are a brand manager and you need packaging for a product that will be sold on supermarket shelves. Which path should you choose: graphic design or drawing pictures adored by the owner? And what is the difference? We will look into a business problem of a completely earthly matter in analogy with a mission of military and celestial matter.
The orange color in Gagarin SK-1 spacesuit was used in order to quickly find the astronaut during a search operation. The dirty green color of the VKK-6 high-altitude partial pressure suit (developed in the 1960s), on the other hand, was a way to make a fighter pilot less noticeable if he ejected himself from the aircraft into hostile territory.
Supermarket shelves are like battlefields for products. One of the tools for success, aka being put into the shopping basket, is packaging color scheme. This specific tool must be designed according to the mission directive.
A simple example: when we want to attract buyers’ attention - we conduct color analytics, choose contrasting colors to the ones competitors use. We sell in a category where certain colors are customary and brands are used to not standing out - and work in categorical palette shades.
And if we want to reduce the likelihood of sales - we forget all about analytics, design principles, and choose colors at random - based on someone's opinions, likings, and fragmentary knowledge about the effect of color on buyer’s psychology. But every cloud has a silver lining - in this case, it is possible to refrain from investing in graphic design and just hire anyone who knows how to draw.
And if the choice fell on a not so cheap yet extremely credible agency, there is still a chance to save some money. For example, on the number of packaging options you will be shown. Because a problem always has one correct answer. Why pay designers for the time they will spend developing additional options after the ideal one, in specialized professional opinion, has already been created?
For example, there may only be one color of the rescue spacesuit, which will be more visible against the snow / water / forest background and other landscape options than any other color. And vice versa, not visible if such is the task at hand. Using all the other colors will be like playing dice with death.
A few words on what is usually taken into account when designing packaging to up the chances of survival:
- the form - you will immediately notice, for instance, a square egg in a tray.
- a fundamentally non-categorical solution. A set of qualities that in theory does not in any way line up with the task, causing cognitive dissonance and, therefore, interest. For example, black packaging for butter.
- the size - BIG among the small. And vice versa. It is important to stand out from the general “product crowd”.
- personification - who is there to resist when one is addressed by name.
- uniqueness. An opportunity to become number one - an insight that is as old as time. Any limited series are all about that.
- acting on the situation. Any timely use of popular subjects. For example, seasonal outbreaks of football fans, cartoon premieres, etc.
