DC - Response from Gary at packaging formats

Hi Stephanie

Good to hear about your interest in the packaging side of the business and I will give you as much feedback as I can.

Most of my work is Presentation packaging and I don't get involved with the Food or Drink side as its so specialised.

My favourite food packaging at the moment is the Dorset Cereals range,really good graphics with cut outs to the front and

side so you can see what's inside the pack.They have also been clever with the printing as its actually printed on the reverse

side of a one sided board to give it a "textured recycled look" and then finished it off with foil blocking giving it a really high

end look which results in a high price, although I must say the contents are delicious!

The most interesting food packaging I have come across was some Christmas Fudge cartons from a couple of year's ago 

and I have attached some photo's to show how it folds from being flat to a 3 dimensional box, it still fascinates me every time

I fold it, and just by changing the graphics and the material it could be used for lots of other products, although it looks quite complicated, its produced from a flat sheet of board, printed, die cut and glued just like a normal carton, its the fold over top

that does it for me!

Both these show the importance of good design in packaging as they both could look really naff with the wrong graphics, if it

looks good from the outside its usually good on the inside!

All my packaging projects are bespoke and are driven by different stocks, print processes, and unique materials, but the most important thing before I start coming up with ideas is to find out the budget as this will determine which route I go down, its pointless designing high end packaging if the customer hasn't the budget.

Once I have an idea on unit costs I can then design the packaging to suit the budget, so it could be a simple corrugated mailer

that's screen printed costing £2.00 per unit right through to a paper covered box with hidden magnets costing £30.00 per unit.

Hope that helps with your project

Gary