Three Visual Elements of Packaging Design

Zhonghui Design (Beijing Zhonghui Avenue Consulting Co., Ltd.) A: As a means to realize commodity value and use value, packaging plays an extremely important role in the fields of production, circulation, sales and consumption, and is an important topic that enterprises and designers have to pay attention to. The function of packaging is to protect commodities, transmit commodity information, facilitate use, facilitate transportation and promote sales. Packaging, as a comprehensive discipline, has the duality of combining goods and art. Successful packaging design must have the following five points: shelf impression, readability, appearance pattern, brand impression and functional feature description.

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Packaging design refers to the container structure modeling, packaging beautification and decoration design of packaged goods by selecting suitable packaging materials and using ingenious technical means. From this we can see the three elements of packaging design.

Waveform factor

Appearance factor is the appearance of the product packaging surface, including the size, size and shape of the display surface. We see three forms in our daily life, namely, natural form, artificial form and accidental form. However, when we study the form composition of products, we must find a form suitable for any nature, that is, to extract the same regular things as * * * *, which is the so-called abstract form.

As we know, morphological composition is morpheme, or morpheme, which is a variety of ever-changing forms formed through certain methods and laws. Morphology is composed of points, lines, surfaces and bodies. Packaging forms mainly include: cylinder, cuboid, cone, various forms and combinations of related forms. The novelty of packaging forms formed by different cutting plays a very important role in the visual guidance of consumers, and the unique visual form can leave a deep impression on consumers. Packaging designers must be familiar with the characteristics and forms of form elements themselves, and use them as materials to express formal beauty.

When we consider the form elements of packaging design, we must also understand them from the perspective of the law of formal beauty. According to the principle of formal beauty in packaging design and the characteristics of products' own functions, various factors are organically and naturally combined to obtain a perfect and unified design image.

The principle of formal beauty of packaging appearance elements is mainly considered from the following eight aspects: symmetry and balance, stability and lightness, contrast and harmony, repetition and echo, rhythm and rhythm, analogy and association, proportion and scale, unity and change.

Constituent element

Composition is a complete picture that arranges trademarks, graphics, words and their combinations on the display surface of commodity packaging. The combination of these four aspects constitutes the overall effect of packaging and decoration. The use of trademarks, graphics, words and colors, the constituent elements of commodity design, is correct, appropriate and beautiful, which can be called excellent design works.

1. Trademark design

A trademark is a symbol and a symbolic image of enterprises, institutions, goods and facilities. Trademark is a related handicraft, involving politics, economic legal system, art and other fields. The characteristics of a trademark are determined by its function and form. It needs to express rich communication content in a simpler and more general form in a relatively small space, and at the same time, it needs observers to understand its internal meaning in a short time. Trademarks can generally be divided into three forms: word mark, graphic trademarks and trademarks combining words and pictures. A successful trademark design should be the product of the organic combination of creative expression. Creativity is the synthesis, analysis, induction and generalization of an idea according to the design requirements. Through philosophical thinking, the abstract is transformed into an image, and the design concept is gradually transformed from abstract evaluation performance to concrete image design.

2. The art of binding and design

Packaging and decoration graphics mainly refer to the image of products and other auxiliary decorative images.

As the language of design, graphics are the internal and external components of display image, and convey information to consumers in the form of visual image. To achieve this goal, the positioning accuracy of graphic design is very important. The process of positioning is to be familiar with all the contents of the product, including the nature of the product, the meaning of the trademark, the name of the product and the status quo of similar products.

Graphics can be divided into physical graphics and decorative graphics.

Physical graphics: expressed by painting skills and photography. Painting is the main form of packaging decoration design, and drawing pictures according to the needs of the overall packaging concept serves the goods. Compared with photography, it has the characteristics of free choice, refinement and generalization. The painting technique is intuitive and interesting, and it is a means to publicize, beautify and sell goods. However, the commercialization of commodity packaging determines that the design should highlight the real image of commodities and give consumers an intuitive image. Therefore, photography is the best way to express the real and intuitive visual image.

Decorative graphics: there are two ways of expression: concrete and abstract. Graphics, landscapes, animal or plant patterns, as symbolic graphics of packaging, can be used to express the contents and attributes of packaging. Abstract techniques are mostly used for freehand brushwork, and a picture is composed of abstract geometric patterns, color blocks or texture effects of points, lines and surfaces, which is concise, eye-catching and formal, and is also the main expression method of packaging and decoration. Usually in packaging and decoration design, concrete forms and abstract expressions are not isolated, but combined with each other.

The dialectical unity of content and form is the universal law of graphic design. In the design process, according to the needs of graphic content, it is the basic requirement of packaging designers to choose the corresponding graphic expression methods, so that graphic design can achieve the unity of form and content, and create applicable, economical and beautiful decorative design works that reflect the spirit of the times and national characteristics.

3. Color design

Color design plays an important role in packaging design. Color is an important factor to beautify and highlight products. The application of packaging color is closely related to screen design's conception and composition. Packaging color needs planarization and homogenization, which is a high generalization of color filtering and refining. Based on people's association and color habits, exaggerated color change is a means of packaging art. At the same time, the color of packaging must also be controlled and restricted by technology, materials, uses and sales areas.

The color requirements in packaging and decoration design are eye-catching, strong in contrast, attractive and competitive, so as to arouse consumers' desire to buy and promote sales. For example, food and bright and rich colors, mainly warm colors, highlight the freshness, nutrition and taste of food; Medicine and pure cold and warm colors; Soft midtones are often used in cosmetics; Hardware and mechanical tools often use stable color blocks such as blue and black to show the characteristics of firmness, precision and durability; Children's toys often use bright solid colors and various color blocks with strong contrast between cold and warm to satisfy children's psychology and hobbies; In the packaging category of Shanghai products for sporting goods, bright and loud color blocks are often used to increase the feeling of liveliness and movement ... Different products have different characteristics and attributes. Designers should study consumers' habits and hobbies, as well as the changing trend of popular colors at home and abroad, and constantly enhance their understanding of sociology and consumer psychology of colors.

4. Text design

Words are symbols that convey ideas, exchange feelings and information, and express a certain theme. The brand, product name, description, advertising text, manufacturer, company or distribution unit on commodity packaging reflect the essential content of packaging. When designing a package, these words must be considered as part of the overall design of the package.

The key points of text design in packaging and decoration design are:

The text content is concise, true and vivid, easy to read and remember; Font design should reflect the characteristics, nature and uniqueness of goods, and have good recognition and aesthetic functions; The arrangement of characters should be in harmony with the overall design style of packaging.

Material element

Material elements are the texture and texture of the surface of the materials used in commodity packaging. It often affects the visual effect of commodity packaging. The best effect of commodity packaging can be achieved by using the surface changes or surface shapes of different materials. Packaging materials, whether paper, plastic, glass, metal, ceramics, bamboo and other composite materials, have different texture and texture effects. Using different materials and proper combination can bring different feelings to consumers, such as novelty, coldness or luxury. Material element is an important part of packaging design, which is directly related to the overall function and economic cost of packaging, production and processing methods, recycling and treatment of packaging waste and many other issues.