Package Design I: The Basic Why and How

1. Trailer: In this series of classes, you're going to learn all about package design. You're going to get a quick overview on history. We're going to gain insight into the market and we're going to learn what makes the package design successful and really work. We're going to focus on all the technical aspects. We'll be looking at diets, FDA regulations, and much, much more. I'm Trina and I'm the one who will be leading you through all of this. I've been working as a designer for the past 15 years. I've helped build brands and create products for clients like these. I absolutely love package design. You have to figure out how to interweave a number of design elements into a really tight, crafted, well-considered space. I also love how package design is all about competition. There's no other format that allows you to stack up products all side-by-side and ask the buyer to make a split-second decision based off of impact. So much of that impact is dependent on design. To me, that is really, really exciting. I hope you'll join me in learning more about how to design for the package. 3. Intro: Hi. Welcome to package design. I'm Trina, and I'm going to be your Skillshare teacher. So, ever since I lean on my first packaging gig, about seven years ago, I've been completely hooked on this format of design. I love the idea that you have this tiny amount of real estate to deliver a complete brand, and you've got to enter a logo, color, typography, overall style, and imagery altogether in this confined space that needs to be perfectly designed. That design has to work. It really needs to attract attention, and it must clearly communicate. So, another reason why I like packaging design so much, is that I feel like design can make such a huge difference here, and there's no other format that just puts all products and their competition like side-by-side, sharing the same shelf space, and then asks the buyer to make a decision, a split-second decision. So, as a designer, I like the idea that my designs can have that kind of impact, and to make that kind of a difference. So, in order to get started in package design, you must know how to design clearly, and strategically, and you need to learn how to emulate a lot of design elements together seamlessly. You also need some technical know-how. You need to understand dies, and printing, and you need to learn your way around a handful of FDA type of regulations. So, my goal here today is to show you how to navigate through all of this, and to just show you how I personally design for packaging. Let's get to work. 4. The History Of Package Design: All right. So, I thought getting some sense of history of the package itself seemed like a great place to dive into this. So, we're going to go all the way back to ancient days where we see the first packaging. So, packaging for them was built out of a need. It was born out of necessity. So, they needed to keep and protect food, and the materials they used to do this were the materials that were available to them. So, their packaging took form in the shape of pottery, ceramic vessels, they would weave bags, and build wooden barrels. So, fast-forwarding, many years in the 1700's. In the 1700s, the process of tinning was invented. This led to what we think of as packaging, like actual boxes and shapes. So, tinning has the process of thinly coating sheets of iron and steel with tin. So, the reason they wanted to coat the sheets with tin is that tin would prevent them from rusting. So, tin-plate boxes first began to be sold from the ports of England around 1725, and then in about 1760, tobacconists in London began packing their snuff into these metal plated canisters. So, fast forward, about 50 years to the turn of the century, and the discovery that air-tight containers allowed food to be preserved better. So, that discovery along with the invention of tinning led to the process of canning. So, canning essentially took the material of the template and turned it into an airtight can, just like the kind that you think of in your pantry. So, around 1813, we see the world's first commercial canning factory set up in London, and they produced the first canned goods for the royal navy. So, at about that same time, there were also a lot of paper and packaging developments as well. So, we see the first corrugated paper boxes, we see prefab paperboard boxes, like the kind that fold flat and then go pop up. We also see commercial paper bags that were first manufactured and first used. So, into the 20th century, we see an increased processing efficiency, and we see even greater improved food safety. We also see a lot more materials being used, materials like plastic, aluminum, and cellophane. So, one interesting note is that a lot of these advancements in packaging were first developed for military use. So, they needed to transport all of their materials, and their supplies, and their food under really rigorous transportation and bad storage conditions. So, a lot of the discoveries that they found to do that fed the consumer packaging industry. So, fast forwarding to a time where most of us can remember into the 1980s, when we see a big increase in post-consumer recycling, and that was due to curbside recycling programs and just an overall public awareness. So, now, moving into current day, that more environmental sustainable approach sears new packaging technologies. So, the goals of sustainable packaging are to reduce or eliminate the use of raw materials, and to reduce or eliminate the pollution that packaging creates. So, in order to do that, the entire lifecycle of a packet just considered from the raw materials being used, to how that turns into a substrate, to the size of the packet and how it's filled, to transportation of the product, and then ultimately how we dispose off that package. Whether we just throw it away, or we recycle it, or compost it, or if it's biodegradable. So, environmental concerns definitely push innovation today. It's been a very concise nutshell, that's the history of package design. Next, we're going to dive into gaining some insight into our audience, the grocery store shopper. 6. Audience: Okay so before we can design anything at all, we need to know who we're designing for. We need some insight into that grocery store shopper. So, that's what we're gonna do next. So, of course each product and each brand, they all have their own specific audience that they're trying to reach. However, that audience and that end user, they're not necessarily the ones that are in the store, in front of the grocery store shelf making that buying decision. So, for example, the decision-maker for a kid cereal is normally the mom or dad who's buying it, it's normally not the kid. So, when I'm designing I'm just mindful of that. Of course when I design for the end user, but I'm also designing for that typical grocery store shopper who's the one that is ultimately making that buying decision. So, the following is a snapshot of that typical shopper. So, first the gender split, it's about two-thirds female to one-thirds male. Forty seven is the average age and about 74 percent of shoppers are between the ages of 18 and 54. So, about 28 percent have a household income greater than 75,000 a year. Nearly 85 percent of consumers say that price is their biggest purchasing factor, which is a rather large number there. So, there are a lot of other factors that go into the purchasing decision as well. I found this chart from a Nielsen report, and I thought it was pretty interesting. Essentially, it details out decision-making factors in order of importance. So, I'm mainly going to be focusing on this far right column, which is the North America column. So, in the top seat spots are price and health, which I think I would expect that. Fourth down on the list is package labeling. Then we've got retainer loyalty programs, we've got recycled packaging down here in number seven, which is pretty high up, so that's pretty impressive. Further down on the list we've got a few more, organic products in the ninth spot. Nutrition, enhance nutrition and food allergy down here a little bit. So, it's also good to be mindful of how people shop, what kind of mode they're in. So, I wanted to give you some insight there. We're going to run through these four main different shopping modes, the first of which is auto-pilot. So, this is a grab-n-go type of buyer. They're wanting to get in and out of the store as quick as possible, they're not wanting to really think about a thing and they're just making their decisions based out of habit and routine. They're buying on because they've always bought something. They're not really looking to try anything new. So, common auto pilot products are coffee, margarine, mayonnaise, soft drinks, cheese, those types of things. So, next we have variety seekers. So, these people enjoy shopping, they're probably at home cook. They're more browsing the aisles, they're in search of something different and something new and innovative. They're going to read a little a bit more and they're going to be interested. They're going to be comparing products more likely and their bottom line is, they're looking for something new and they want to try something. Next on the list we've got our buzz type shoppers. So, buzz shoppers, they're going to be really influenced by branding. They're going to stand in front of a shelf-space and whatever jumps out and grabs them is what they're going to gravitate towards. So, typical buzz products are energy and sports drinks, chocolate, yogurt drinks. So, finally we've got our bargain hunters. So, think of these people, they're coming to the grocery store, they've got their list, they've got their stash of coupons. They're uber organized and essentially, they're on a mission. All they want to do is see how much they can save. So, putting all these different shoppers together, more than 70 percent of the purchases that they make are made at the point of purchase. I think that's a really exciting statistic, because to me that means that design can have such a huge impact on what products someone picks up, and what they ultimately buy. Then, space design can play such an enormous role in the success of a brand, and a success of a product all together. As a package designer, I see it as my job to design the face of the package in a way that it gets noticed and picked up, and then ultimately bought. So, now that you have some insight into the market and who you're designing for, we can finally delve into how we design to communicate and connect with those consumers. In the next lesson here, I'll be giving you an overview of package design and talking you through the key elements that make package design work. 8. Goals of Package Design: Moving right along into the goals of package design. So, very simply put, successful package design has got to do two things. It needs to communicate clearly and strategically. So, it of course, needs to communicate all of the information that's on the package, but perhaps more important than that, it's also got to communicate and overall brand or a feeling. A consumer needs to be able to connect with that. So, in addition to that, the other really important goal of packaging design is that it's got to get attention. It's really going to pop off the shelf and it needs to stand apart from the competition. We need to make sure it's getting noticed so that the buyer wants to pick it up, learn more, and hopefully, buy it. So, as designers, it's our job to make sure we're delivering on these two things. Okay. So we're going to start with making sure we're communicating clearly. So, when I'm working on a package design, I'm normally given quite a few items that needs to fit in this small amount of real estate. So, here's what's typical. I normally have a brand name that I'm working with, a product name, and some product description or claims. In this case, I have a live and unpasteurized. Examples of some other claims might be like high in fiber or low in sodium or 20 grams of protein. You get the idea. So beyond that, we've got a few certifications down here. In this case, you're seeing USTA, a non-GMO logo, and then we've always got to have a net weight there at the bottom. So, with all of these items going on, it's really really important that we're strategic and that we're prioritizing this information. In a split second, a buyer needs to understand what the product is and why it's different. After that, they must quickly be able to figure out the different flavors of a product and then finally be able to drill down into all of that secondary information, descriptions and the claims, and that kind of stuff. So, in order to do that, we are going to draw upon all of our fundamentals of design. So, your most important messages like your brand name and your product name, those are given the most prominence. We're either going to do that through scale or just making them large so that they're the first things you see or through visual weight, like they're heavier than everything else so that they pop out at you first, or just where we place them on the package. If we place them toward the top, they're obviously going to be breadth-first. So after that, probably the next prioritizing thing is the product name and how you're differentiating flavors. So, it needs to be really, really obvious how you're differentiating flavors. A buyer doesn't want to have to think at all. So, you want to make sure you're making it super clear. So, in this case, I've got flavor differentiation obviously in a different color bands that spread through the middle of these package in France. I've also got this plant illustration that changes from flavor to flavor or from product to product, and then I'm also doing a product window. So, they're getting flavor differentiation on three different levels here and it's really, really, really obvious. So, another thing that a lot of times you'll work with is that a brand needs to expand to different product lines as well. So, we want to set them up. We want to set a plan up for that expansion and that kind of growth. So, if I know that that's going to need to happen whenever I'm designing at the beginning, I'm always keeping that in the back of my head. So, whenever we're going from product line to product line, we're obviously maintaining that brand consistency. Yet we need to have the ability to change it up for the specific needs of the various products that you might have. So, I like the idea that all the products go together as a nice little family. Yet they can also stand alone and completely make a great impact within their own specific categories. So, we're going to get more into that on the class on packaging design, but for now, let's go ahead and move into the other really big goal of package design which is getting attention and making sure that we're really, really popping off of that shelf. So, we've got to stand apart from all the other that share a common shelf-space. Whenever I'm trying to figure out how to do that, I'm doing a few things. So, the first thing that I'm doing is, I am taking a trip to the grocery store and I'm examining the shelf space for where that potential product may live. So, when I'm studying the shelf-space, I'm looking for a few things. I'm looking for trends in the category and to see what everybody else is doing. Then I'm looking to see where there's room to completely differentiate. So, if I'm at the store and I'm standing in front of us granola shelf space like I have right here, I see that a lot of people are using white backgrounds with product photography. So, if I'm working for a client who's going to be in that shelf space, the odds are that I'm probably not going to give them an option that allows them to fit in with this. I'm not going to give them that white background with product on top. Instead, I'm going to try to do something different so that they'll pop out of the shelf space, which is currently a little monotone to me. So, another thing I am taking into consideration whenever I'm trying to create designs that really attract attention is how the products will all appear when they're side-by-side. So, when I'm working on the computer and I have a design, I'm literally copy and pasting it and repeating it all in a line so that I can emulate how the products will appear on a grocery store shelf whenever they're all side-by-side and aligned. So, when they're all aligned like that, I want them to create a nice really identifiable block in that shelf environment. This is called brand blocking. So, there's a few ways you can brand block. The most obvious one is color. So, you're seeing here that Tide completely owns this orange color. It fully creates this block in the shelf environment. Beyond that, you're also seeing I think in Gains back there in green. So, in doing this, they're completely owning the shelf space. The buyer knows on an instant who it is. They can even just glance down the aisle and they see this big orange block and they know that's Tide. So, a few more examples of color and brand blocking. Uncle Bens, they use that same bright orange. Other examples would be like Coca-Cola's red, the original Cheerios, they have that yellow box that you saw identify with that product. So, there's is other ways we can brand block too, another way to get attention, and to do that would be using a really identifiable graphic icon. I pulled Izze here. Izze started here because I think they've done this twist to a T. If I'm shopping and I see this asterisk and this circle and these bright bold, refreshing colors, I know in an instance what brand it is. I don't have to read a thing. I knew exactly who it is. So, I think that's really really strong. Another way you can get attention is you can completely do a different style, which I think Mrs. Meyer's, I'm sure we all love this brand, but I think they've done it really well. They look nothing like their competition, and it's really made them completely stand apart. So, they've done this really topography dance retro color palette, and when you see them all blocked off in a shelf, you know in an instant exactly who the brand is. Again, you don't have to read a thing. You just know from the style that they've created. Another company who I think has done that really, really well has been just the nut butters. So, their space, it's filled with red yellows and greens and all of these earthy type of colors, and they came in with this really, really, really clean white design and went Uber simple with just this like iconic hand-drawn and really, really, really recognizable illustration, and it completely makes them immediately recognizable. Another way we can pop off the shelf is by changing the format. So, I know, personally, I first started buying simply orange just because of the new bottle shape, and I still buy it. So, it worked. I also love how Help remedy has completely changed the way that medicine is packaged and how it's communicated. Another tool that we can use to make designs that pop is through the use of scale. So, maybe you're blowing out text huge and that's in this bold black font. So, that just by sheer size alone you're creating that impact and that you're drawing that buyer and simply because everything is larger on your package front. Finally, we can create attention by interjecting personality and really trying to tell a story through the designs that we create. I love these new Campbell's Go packaging. They do exactly that. You get so much personality from these little designs. In the shelf-space, they're completely different than what everybody else is doing. So, that really allows them to stand out and be noticed. So, the bottom line here is that you want to design in a way that really sets a brand to completely own a shelf space. So, whether you're doing that by owning a solid color or an identifiable graphic icon or you're using scale or you're telling a story or you're developing a completely different kind of style, you really want to just be designing specific brand elements that are really unique and completely identifiable for a product. So, that wraps up the first class on package design. I really hope that I've given you a good base to start from and I hope that you're going to join me in class number 2, where are we going to be talking about all the technical stuff that goes into a package design and finally class number 3, where we're actually going to be designing the package. 11. Dies: So, welcome to class number two of package design. Thanks for coming back. In this class, we're going to dive into all the nitty-gritty technicalities that go into a package design, and we're going to start with dielines. So, here's a typical dieline. I'm normally getting these from my clients printers. Actually, I'm insisting that they come from my clients printers. The reason for that is I don't want to be the one responsible for any sizing mishaps, or if something doesn't fold together just right, or something like that. So, this is the file that I'm opening and seeing the file is since May. So, the most important part of the this die is probably this black line here. That's your trim line. It's running outside the perimeter of the entire packaging. So, essentially, after the packages are all printed, the substrate is die cut exactly to this black line. You're seeing a window cut out right here. So, beyond that black line, you're seeing this pink line that goes all the way around. That's your bleed line. So, a lot of dies I get do not have this line. If that's the case, I'm normally just pulling a bleed just like I went for the print world. Normally, an eighth of an inch is sufficient. You can also pull a quarter of an inch. That's perfectly fine. Other lines are these red dotted lines. Those are just denoting all the folds in the package. Finally, we've got this light blue cyan line here. This is calling up the live areas of the package. Essentially, it's saying that you should keep all your important artwork within those frames there because when this guy's all die cut enfolded, there could be a little bit of shifting. If you get too close to this edges, you can have something wrap around the edge that maybe you didn't mean to. A lot of times or probably most times, I'm not seeing these live area lines on a die. But anyway, that's when it is in this one. You're also seeing a blue strip over here in green. So, this is what a typical die looks like. We're going to now go through different formats of packaging and looking at the dies next to them. What I'm going to do is I'm going to call out various areas of concern or things to look out for as we go through the various formats. So, the first format that we're going to look at is just a really, really simple straightforward label. So, in this case, I've got the label share and wrapping around a tin or a canister, but it's the exact same, whether it's being wrapped around a bottle or a tin like I've got shown here. So, the main thing that I'm looking out for whenever I'm designing a label is I just really want a really clear understanding of what the live area is, what width I have to play with here. Of course, the label is wrapping around a cylindrical product. You're losing it as that's wrapped around the edges and curving backward. So, you want to be really clear about the width you have to play with so that you make sure nothing is getting lost as it's going backward. The other thing you want to look out for is that any information that goes on the sides or the back of your label. You want to make sure it's back there. For instance, I want to really place like a nutrition label right here, close to this side because it could creep around and you could see it from the front, and you don't want that. You don't want anything creeping over into this main principle display panel. So, the next format is a wrap, like you would wrap around a bar-type product. So, the die over here to the left, essentially, this is the front display panel here. Then this is the top area that wraps around, and this is the bottom area that wraps around. Those two pieces come together, and they glue, and they form a seal. In this case, it's a fin seal, which I'm going to show you here in a second. But there's also this black box, which is called an eyespot. Essentially, when these are printed, it's on film and it's package after package after package. What this eyespot does is it tells the machine exactly where to cut one package from the next. If you see an eyespot on artwork, it's really important or it's a must that you cannot have any graphics at all to, like in this case, the right and the left of this the eyespot. Machines need a completely clear white areas so that they can pick up that black box and know exactly where to cut that package. So, other things that I'm looking out for in this type of format, the main thing is probably the live area. We want to stay away from this left side and this right side because that's where the package is meeting on the sides to form the seal. So, this die, they did have the live area called out, which was really, really helpful. You can see that it's really brought in from those edges. The other thing that I'm looking out for on this format is just whenever I'm laying out the back graphics, I'm going to go ahead and go to the next slide here. Where those pieces of packaging come together on the back, they glue together and they create what's called a thin seal. I've pulled it up so I can take this picture for you, so you can get it. But essentially, the spin seal, it comes up in blues, and it's either going to fall, in this case, down or up. So, it's going to cover some of the artwork. So, you just want to be clear about what artwork it's going to cover up so that you can plan accordingly. So, I'm just getting that information from the printer. I'm just asking them to be specific so that I know exactly how to place artwork. So, the next format we're going to look at is just a typical bag, like a chip bag. It's not too much different from the wrap. In this case, it's just turned vertically. So, here, this is our main package front. They have this center line called out. So, it's probably a little bit confusing here, but this is our package front. Then we have the sides that wrap around and form the bag. So, this would be the left side of the bag back here, and this would be the right side. Again, we have the seal where these two pieces come together and seal up to form the bag. You see your eyespot here. So, again, we want to keep all graphics out of this area. It needs to be completely white so that machine knows where to cut it. So, the things that I'm looking for when designing for a bag like this is I obviously want to keep graphics out of these seal areas. That's a good rule of thumb. I've also found on chip bags like this, you need to place graphics higher up than you feel like they should go. The reason for that is when they're loaded with product or chip, all the weights to the bottom, and the product fills up the bottom, and it sticks out some. So, you want to make sure your graphics are high enough so that when it sticks out, it doesn't cover anything up in a very low portions. Another thing I found that makes me want to scoot graphics up on the bag is a lot of the chip bags whenever they're displayed on a shelf, there's a lip to that shelf to contain them all. So, you want to make sure none of your graphics are being covered up by that lip. So, I found just scooting everything, that seems to be the solution. So, unlike the epic bag, this one had a seal that they call a lap seal. So, instead of the fan which kind of comes together and sticks up and then folds one way or another, a lap sale, they just cross over each other and completely glue. So, we still need to be aware that that's happening and we need to make sure none of our back graphics are getting covered up or glued on or anything like that. It's a little hard to see in this image. I did my best, but here's exactly where that seal is. Next up, we have a pouch. So, with the pouch on this particular die, this is kind of your front display area, this bottom here, this entire area, is the bottom of the pouch and then it continues to wrap around, and this is the back of the pouch. So, if I were laying this out, my graphics for be right side up here, they would be right side up here and I would flip them, and they would be upside down on this panel here. So, that when it folds up, obviously, its all right sides up. So, the main things that I'm looking out for when I'm designing for a pouch are, at this top area, there's normally some sort of tear and they normally have little half-circles cut out here where you're supposed to tear the product. So, I don't want to really place my brand name or anything up here that's potentially going to get torn off. I do see it where people do that but I prefer to keep everything under that. A lot of times, these packages are hung, too. So, there's a circle or something to hang them with. That's not always on the die, so I would just always know if they're, if that's going to happen or not so that you can plan accordingly, and you don't have that whole going right to the middle love on an important phrase or something like that. The other parts I'm looking out for, I don't want to get too close to these seals over here, and then as far as the way that this kind of bottom part works here, the sides on the right and the left, they kind of pinch together and they form a shape on the bottom that looks like that. So, here, I've just taken a pouch and flipped it upside down and taken a shot of it so you can get an idea. So, really whenever you're laying out that bottom area, you don't have as much real estate as it looks like there. You really just have this center portion if you are wanting to kind of do a little design there. Next, we have just a pretty standard box. So, this kind of area here would be this main principle display. You got this here. That'd be like your front panel and it's wrapping around to the box. So, in this case, you've got this product window. It's going from the bottom here and it's wrapping all the way around to this panel and finally going around to the back, and so if I were setting up artwork on this die, it would be right side up here, it would be right side up here or actually, I've got it turned on its side, but anyhow, and the artwork would be flipped upside down on this back panel here. So, the things that I'm conscious of when I'm designing on boxes, the first thing would be that if there is a window cut out, it's just you've got to be mindful that it's actually being cut out. Its not like a pouch where it's just like clear film and that creates the window. Here, it's actually being cut out of the substrate. So, that affects the structure of the box. So, you just can't get too crazy if the box has obviously got a hand up and be structurally sound as so like this window shaped couldn't have come too close to the edges right here because then, that would make the box not as strong, which we don't want. The other thing I'm being mindful of, particularly on this specific product and this kind of setup, it's just the way the buyer's going to experience this package, and I want to know how they're being displayed. So, this was a project I did for a country style bacon, and so you can imagine that they would be like in the meats area. So, my question was, is the consumer going to be reaching down and to get the product or could this product potentially be stacked up. The reason why I'm asking these questions is I want to know what panel they're going to see. So, if the consumers like reaching down into like a refrigerated ban, they're going to see this panel because they're all going to be kind of stacked on top of each other, which is great. But let's say this product goes into like a freezer section or something like that and they're stacked all up on its side, then the consumer is only going to get this panel. So, it's completely less than ideal. However, if I know that, I'm still making the design function for that. I've got the key elements that you would have to know. If you are only seeing the product from that side, we've got what it is, it's country style bacon, and we've got the flavor. It's wood smoked original. So, I put this one in there, too. It's just a gable box, not too much different than what we talked about with the box before. I guess one thing, like on this one, the boxes are folding up and you've got this flap that comes around the back and kind of inserts and here. On a gable box, you just want to make sure that you're keeping that side information. You want to probably keep it to this area. You're going to lose a lot right here. Obviously, if there's a flap that's coming around here, I'm not going to put any any graphics really here because we're just going to be covered up. Another thing on this particular box to note is this bottom area. If you're going to use it say, I'd like to place a bar code on or something like that, you just want to be mindful of what parts of it are covered up. So, when this guy's all folded up, you can imagine all these pieces kind of puzzle piecing together to form on the bottom of the box. So, you want to know exactly how those pieces are layering together, so that you know where to put the bar code and to make sure that it's not being covered up. In general, I normally just kind of keep to the outer edges, so up as close as I can to this red line if I'm placing something because the outside of the edges, you generally have to worry less about that layering and overlapping of different panels. So, this is the last die and last format I'm pulling out here to show you. As I'm sure you know, dies can get a lot more complicated than the ones you are seeing here, and particularly, I've done boxes for point of cells or they need to function those boxes and then they need to kind of fold into a point of cell too, and I've done other ones where actually they tear off parts of boxes to then form into a point of sale. So, kind of my rule of thumb is, if I question anything or if I'm unsure about anything in a die I receive, I'm printing it off and I'm doing like a mini mock up so that I can fully understand how all the panels work together and then I can know exactly kind of which way which way artwork needs to go together. So, that wraps it up on dies. Next we're going to be discussing product windows. 13. Product Windows: Okay. So, next up, using and designing with product vendors, how do we do that? So, I've used quite a few product windows on my projects. I normally find clients love to see their products in a window. It is a great way to make sure that buyer knows exactly what they're getting. It does a good job of reducing the fear of the unknown if a buyer can see the actual product inside. So, we've definitely got a plan if there's going to be a product window. So, there's a few things you need to know or you need to consider. First off, what type of substrate are you printing on? So, if you're printing on film or a pouch, and then you have a lot more freedom and shape. Essentially, no windows actually being cut out, of course, and the windows are just where no inc is printed, and you're seeing the product come through. So, windows on that substrate can be any shape or size. Now, if you're doing a window on a box, you just got to be a little bit more careful because the cut out is an actual cut out, and messes with the overall structural integrity of the box. So, in general, cutoffs are more simple in shape, or need to be more simple in shape when it comes to doing it there. The other thing that I'm super mindful of whenever I'm putting a product window in is, I want to highlight the product at its best. So, for me, if I have a product that is going to settle and break down, and I'm going to see crumbs at the bottom of the bag, then I'm probably not going to do a window like the ones you see here. Because people really don't want to see crumbs. I'm sorry, I'd probably be placing the product window a little bit higher if I had a product that was going to do that. Another thing you want to be super mindful of is where the fill line is in a product. So, whenever they fill up the bag, where's that coming? So, you definitely want the window to be below that fill line. It would be a huge no-no to see empty space in the bag and it look only halfway full. So, in order to know where that fill line is, I'm getting that information from my client, and then I'm patting it to, I want to be extra, extra safe. There's other factors I can plan to it too, such as inconsistencies in fill lines, and also when the product is shipped, it can settle a little bit more. So, I want to stay away from that fill line as much as I can. The last thing whenever I'm dealing with product windows, I think they're great, but they definitely restrict you more from a design standpoint, and not only because you've got a shape, but also you just need to be really, really mindful of what's showing through that window. The design needs to work around that. All the colors you're selecting need to enhance the product, and what it looks like. So, if I'm designing in those product window, I'm always pulling. I'm always like taking a shot of the product and actually having that window with the product there when I'm designing because you just want it to all flow together. So, that's all the information I have about product windows. Next up, we're going to be talking about some certifications and standards around nutrition label. 15. Certifications: All right. So, our next topic in the technical aspects of package design are just a little information on our certifications and our net weight. Most at times, these are going on the front of the package, of course sometimes we're pulling around some certification to the back too, but this is just a little tidbit of information regarding those. This next slide is just showing you all the certifications that I've ran across and that I use. I'm sure there's more than what I'm showing you here, but I find these to be the most common. The most common that I'm using are definitely non-GMO and the USDA, that USDA organic seal. So when we're using these of course it's just careful that we use them, just in their original form, no modifying them at all of course. There is a size restriction on the non-GMO, they want it to be at least three eighths of an inch tall, and that one also needs to be in full color when you use it. So, I'm always finding out before I start on design or before I start on a project, which certifications we're going to need because you need to really, really plan for them whenever you're laying out the front of a package. They can definitely influence design. In general, my strategy for when using certifications is to try to group them together as much as possible. If I can put them in the same visual space, I find that to just be more attractive from a design perspective. So the breakdown of certifications you're seeing here, we've got, of course, are non-GMO, we've got certified USDA Organic, you've got Kosher seals, and there's different logos for different levels of Kosher. Your client should be giving you that information. I got Vegan, Gluten Free, some environmental certifications and logos, and some logos for the department the agriculture like when you're using meat and products. So, with all of these certifications, the client is giving me permission to use them. They've got to go through their own approval procedures in order to actually be able to use these seals, so it's not like I'm just going and grabbing them from somewhere. The client is telling me which ones to use and they're approved to use those. Next we're going talk about net weight, and the regulations around that. Net weight is obviously a line that you see at the bottom of all packages, it just specifies the weight of the product that is inside of it, and there are some regulations around that. The first one is they like this toward the bottom. I think it's like in the bottom, half of the bag is what they prefer. I never really worry about it too much because I'm generally putting this information at the bottom, I'm trying to hide it as much as I can, and there's some size requirements around this, and the size you make it is based upon the size of the package. So, you've got to figure out the area of your principal display panel. So, I'm taking the height of my package front and times-ing it by the width and that's how I am getting this area. So, if my package is five square inches or less you can see that your net weight is got to be 116th of an inch. If it's 5-25 square inches, that needs to be one eighth of an inch. If it's 25-100 square inches, that needs to be three sixteenths of an inch, you get the idea on down. So, how they're measuring this net weight is this 116th or this one eight or this 316th, that needs to be the height of a small lowercase O. So, if you're doing like a mixed case, obviously your uppercase letters would actually be taller than that, or another way you can do it is you can put net weight in all capital letters. If you're doing that, then the all caps can be this exact height that they're giving you. I'm normally doing it that way, I'm normally them in all caps for some reason it just feels better and a little bit smaller to me doing it that way, rather than mixed case. So after that, are the font requirements for net weight. It can be in any font at all, it just has to be clear and easy to read. The only real restriction that they give you in regard to that is that the proportion of the letters, that they can't be too condensed, so you cannot use a font that has letters that are more than three times as high as they are wide. There's also a spacing requirements that you need to follow. So, they went a clear space around that net weight, so no product windows can go into that space, no other graphics. Nothing at all can go in that clear space that they want. So, the clear space is equal to the height of the letter N in "Net Weight", so normally what I'm doing, after I've got my "Net Weight" sized to the exact right size, I'm just copying and pasting an N, and I'm making sure I can move it around net weight and the height of it is completely clear, there's no other graphic elements in that space. All right. So, I think that pretty much covers net weight and certifications. Next, we're going to be flipping the package over or moving it around and we are going to be delving into all the items that make up the back of the package. 17. Around the Package: Okay. So, now we're going to turn the package around, look at the sides, look at the back, and discuss all the items that need to shake out into those layouts. So, here's a list and this list is pretty focused on food specific products. So, you need to have a place for your nutrition label, an ingredient list, allergen information, and you need a little place for who the product is distributed by, and you need a spot for your bar code. Also, you might need an area for an expiration date. So, there's obviously a lot of regulations around having a nutrition label, needs to appear. There's no real regulation on the font that you're using, and it just needs to be a clear easy to read file. There's a lot more regulations around the size of different items. So, I'm going to go through from top to bottom, the size that everything must be at. So, you're largely nutrition facts heading needs to be 13 points, all of this text like you're serving size and your servings per container and then all of these texts below here, that all needs to be eight point. This smaller text secure amount per serving and your percent daily value headers there, those can be six point and so can your percent daily values lying down here that can be a six point as well. It's also important to note all of these bolts, total fat as bolded, cholesterol, sodium, total carbohydrate. All of this need to appear bolded. Then finally, we have different weights of rules that everything need to be at, so these heavier lines in here there's going to be at three point, in your lighter lines breaking up all the individual nutritional spacing to be a fourth point rule. So, the nutrition label can either go on the sides or the back of the package, wherever it has enough room to be at this size. There are some different alternatives on nutrition labels, but you really can't use these unless your package is really small, it has got to be a total of 12 square inches or less to be able to resort to one of these different styles, or if it's a weird shape or a weird format where there's literally not enough room for the vertical tabular format of the nutritional label, then you can use these labels. In general, my clients they have like an FTA consultant on their end, that they're normally getting approval from and running these different things past. So, it's not all on you as a designer to know all this, but definitely being armed with the information is extremely helpful and meet it. But they definitely have similar on their end, approving things, telling them what they can and can't do. So, the other things that need to go either on the sides or to the back of the package, are your ingredients and your allergens. These need to be grouped together, and the list of ingredients that needs to be placed either underneath or right beside your nutrition label, so you can't really separate those two, you need to group them. Also, your allergens need to follow the ingredient statement, so that's important. There is a restriction around the size of your ingredients, a lowercase ''o'' has got to be one 16th of an inch tall, that's normally about eight point. Then every here on your right you see a couple of other items that you need to work and you always need some sort of distributed by, type of information block and it normally just has their company name and their company address. I don't believe there's any size restriction around that and normally all this information is coming from the client. They should know that they need this, so you should be getting all that information. But it is good for you to have that information so that if you're client doesn't give you that, then you can at least ask them and tell them that you think that it's required. Also, just an area for exploration, so most of the time I'm not like blocking it in quite like this, I'm just putting like an XP colon and I'm giving a good amount of room around it, because these are stamped into place. That stamp just needs a little bit of wiggle room. Normally, I'm getting that exact room or area of empty space that it needs from the printer, they are normally able to give that to me. Normally like an inch wide, maybe three-quarters of an inch tall or something like that should be enough room for those stamps, but I'm asking the printer for specifics. So, I also wanted to just include some alcohol guidelines for you, just say you're armed with a little bit more information. So, I found that working on alcohol labels that whoever is I guess restricting like in Texas, it's the TVC. They're pretty picky about the way all the text appears on the label and what order things fall in. So, again, your client should have that contact with whoever that regulator is in your area, and they should be working out those details and giving you those specifics. It's not your job to know them all. However, of course, it's handy if you know these basic ones, so that you're designing things right. So, the first one like on the front of the label, you obviously need your percent alcohol and you need the proof. This is normally found at the bottom but it's got to be at least two millimeters in height. Then also the government warning needs to appear somewhere on the label, and that text as well should be two millimeters in height, and the government warning always needs to be in bold. So, that wraps it up for all the information that needs to go around the package or the label, and that also wraps it up for the entire class about all the technical aspects that go into package design. In our next class, class number three, we're going to be actually looking at the design of the package and how we go about doing that, so it's going to get exciting.