Packaging Podcast

A recent questions by listener Enrique F. asks:

How do you always deliver innovative packaging designs and structural engineering? 

The answer is, by doing more reps, building new designs, and copying other designs because the more you test out concepts the more you'll have in your idea bank. 

Don't copy to duplicate, copy to learn and apply those learnings to your own designs and your own packaging design style.

Ask your own packaging design question to Evelio by connecting with him on LinkedIn: https://bit.ly/EvelioMattos

Support our sponsor IDPdirect.com by downloading their free sustainable packaging guide: https://bit.ly/IDPgreen

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The idea that a brand trying to save money on packaging design is going to create a folding carton that consumers will actually use to decorate their home is ridiculous. Reusable packaging systems like Tom Szaky's Loop is different it actually gets reused. Creating packaging for CPGs that is a throwaway item and market it as reusable, is less helpful than clearly stating to the consumer how to properly recycle the packaging.

Keep recycling easy, don't complicate it. It's complicated enough.

Let me know what you think.

Find Evelio Mattos on LinkedIn: https://bit.ly/EvelioMattos

Support our sponsor IDPdirect.com

Why do brands use plastic laminate over their papers when manufacturing their packaging? It's there to protect the print and integrity of the finish, but at what risk? The packaging becomes completely unrecyclable curbside unless it is separated into mixed or is incinerated, but it is not recyclied with paper of as plastic.

Connect with Evelio on LinkedIn and DM him any questions you have regarding packaging:

https://bit.ly/EvelioMattos

Support our Sponsor IDPdirect.com and Download their Free Sustainable Packaging Guide:

https://bit.ly/IDPgreen

How to set up packaging design files for production and packaging manufacturing.

Create your dielines or open dxf dieline files in illustrator.

Make sure your cut lines and score/crease lines are on separate layers and use different spot colors identified as cut and crease.

Typically I will set up a green for folds and red for cut lines.

To do this open your swatch pallet, create a new one, using CMYK adjust to the desired color, name it cut or fold, select spot color, and save it.

Make sure to select spot color or else this will just piss off your production person, or you’ll end up with green and red lines all over the finished pack. Not good.

Now that you have 2 layers 1 for cut and 1 for folds you need to create a layer for the artwork to be printed.

Just 1 layer for printed artwork. Please don’t set up an illustrator file with 60 layers for print. It happens and it’s a disaster to try and unscrew files like that. Just don’t.

This layer s for all of your images, text, barcodes, etc… Anything that is going to be printed. Since we print in CMYK, all artwork has to be in… you guessed it. CMYK. No RGB files.

This can be easily checked in Illustrator to catch any errors before you send this out using the separations preview window in illustrator to click through each color. Also, don’t set up overprints unless you have some serious production experience. This is easily corrected by the production team, but it’s also easy to over look if you’ve overprinted art as they’ll assume you meant it.

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Why should you bother knowing how to set up a file for print if you’re a designer? Because you have to take control of your own work. Don’t assume someone else will take responsibility for your crappy files. They won’t.

Here's where you find packaging design inspiration. You look everywhere but packaging. Fashion, automotive design, architecture, culinary sciences, everywhere around you less packaging. The reason you shouldn't look to packaging for inspiration is that it helps you avoid looking derivitive and pushes you to be unique. Nobody else will have your perspective or ability to connect disparate objects in the same manner. Get out there and design packaging.

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How often do you consider the amount of plastic packaging in feminine hygiene products?

Probably not often enough. 

These products are packaged in tiny single serve plastics that are too small to be separated by curbside collectors. Size makes the plastic packaging and applicator less than desirable, so let's discuss what brands are out there designing sustainable tampon packaging. 

Let's discuss the different brands tackling this issue and how they're designing sustainable tampon packaging today.

Connect with Evelio on Linkedin: https://bit.ly/EvelioMattos

Support our sponsor - Factory Direct Packaging Manufacturer of Sustainable Packaging: https://idpdirect.com

So, you’re fresh out of school or putting feelers out for a new gig?

How do you get noticed?

Whether you’re one of the 3 Million downloads my books have accumulated, seen my work on packaging websites, or caught my content online. There’s an old school way to get noticed. Keep your head down and crank out great work.

Or the not so new way to get noticed. Get your work in front of eyeballs.

Here’s how:

1) Timing.

What’s happening today or next week? Is there a movie being released, a fashion drop, some Pharma cold chain packaging getting press?

Jump on it.

When Tim Cook was on stage doing the first keynote for the Apple Watch my buddy John Turner and I saw an opportunity. We saw that you’d be needing to charge yet another apple product, so we thought why shouldn’t the packaging include a watch and phone charging station in the pack.

Within 20 minutes we had rendered a full concept for the Apple Watch that took into consideration charging both your phone and watch.

We gained a million views within 3 days and every blog picked it up from Mac Rumors to The Dieline.

We had offers to buy the concept from tech brands, and consumers lining up for pre-orders.

We got noticed in under a half hour.

2) Fake it til you make it.

You can generate buzz with fake packaging. Just like we did for the Apple Watch, the founders of Liquid Death Mountain Water built a business on a photoshopped can.

They designed the concept, shared the image of the packaging because no point in showing the product - it’s just water.

They ran some ads and got feedback that consumers were interested, not only that they got a ton of social impressions.

After the photoshopped can, all they had to do was figure out how to build an entire business. The packaging was the easy part that got them noticed.

3) Provide Value

I released 2 books for Free, Packaging & Dielines 1 & 2. Shared the books on The Dieline, shared each page on Pinterest, and anywhere I knew they’d get seen by designers and start-ups looking for innovative packaging concepts they could make themselves.

Several Years, and 3 Million downloads later - these books are used in nearly every design program and pages from the book flood Pinterest anytime you type in Packaging.

Providing value means giving of yourself, you can do this by sharing packaging hacks you may have learned.

You can share concepts that didn’t make the client cut, or sharing packaging that completely failed explain what you learned from it.

If you want to get noticed, do good work. But make sure your name is tied to the work and shared with a purpose.

As creatives we can feel like a slimy car salesman when we share our work. But don’t. If sharing work wasn’t part of the gig, you wouldn’t be familiar with the work of your favorite designers.

Share it proudly.

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Want to Get Noticed for Sustainable Packaging? Download the Sustainable Packaging Guide from IDPdirect.com

Wanna Ask Questions? Connect with Evelio on LinkedIn - https://bit.ly/EvelioMattos

Should you label something recyclable just because it's technically recyclable? Creating a single polymer flexible film wrapper or flow-wrap that requires stpre drop-off isn't a solution based on current store drop-off rates. Making something recyclable isn't the challenge, but designing packaging with material that's desirable after recycling is. 

Check out our sponsor IDPdirect.com if you're interested in working directly with the factory manufacturing your packaging without distributor mark-ups and convoluted supply-chains.

Connect with Evelio on LinkedIn - https://bit.ly/EvelioMattos

Coke just released images of their new paper bottle and there is a ton of coverage without any asking is paper bottles are actually sustainable packaging? How you design packaging and minimize packaging waste isn't always about material selection, but about human behaviors.

If you're considering sustainable packaging for your brand, contact our sponsor IDP Direct @ IDPdirect.com

Unsure how to get started, check out their sustainable packaging guide which you can download for free here: https://bit.ly/IDPgreen

Everyone is discussing sustainable packaging right now. Yet few know what sustainability means and even fewer understand circular systems. So how do you have a conversation with a client regarding sustainable packaging, you have to draw a line and decide whether you want to get paid or risk losing a client. But it's time to have a frank conversation. 

Support our sponsor: IDPdirect.com the only factory direct packaging manufacturer trusted by luxury brands, and honestly one of the only ones I've worked with that know a thing or two about truly sustainable packaging. Check them out: https://www.IDPdirect.com

Connect with me on LinkedIn: https://bit.ly/EvelioMattos