Look before you eat
A popular saying with foodies and professional chefs is that you eat with your eyes first. That is why presentation is so important when restaurants serve food to their clientele.

In the same manner, when you shop at supermarkets and department stores, if the packaging on the products you view are pleasantly designed you’ll be more open to the possibility of buying the items.

Walking down the aisle of your local grocery store can be a visual overload as the packaging from hundreds of items tries to vie for your attention.

In part 2 of ‘Graphic design inspiration from packaging’ we’ll see that in some cases, going minimalist is the way to attract attention to a product.

Pass the pappardelle pasta, please
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Most pastas are packaged in nondescript boxes with a small cutout or photo so you can see what the product looks like. In this packaging by R Design Studio, the simple but classy design works well.

The packaging makes the product look like a premium brand. It might or might not be but the effect of the design leaves that impression.

Pop goes the soda
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Businesses need advertising to increase their sales. No advertising usually means no expansion of revenues.

But think again. Izze Soda Company increased their sales by 450% in each of its first two years without one bit of advertising. No doubt, the eye-catching graphic and simple design of its product is one of the factors in the drink’s success.

High-tech wine, anyone?
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Most people are used to seeing wine labels that are classic in style and design. But this wine company has elected to drop this genre and upgrade the look for the 21^st century.

The colored dots and patterns on the bottle draw you in, while also piquing your curiosity to inspect the bottle and packaging.

Upscale water
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How would you market bottled water? In the case of Ferrarelle, it has decided to make the water the star of the show.

With decidedly minimalist graphics, the water takes the main stage. Because the graphics are so starkly simple, this design actually draws more attention to the product with just a few slashes of red.

Graphic design school and design principles
You’ve seen that sometimes ‘less is more’ when it comes to packaging design. If you are interested in a career in this field, a graphic design college can help you understand the essentials of design technique.

Call a graphic design school representative or sign-up for more information to evaluate what each school can offer you.

Earliest memories
Do you remember the excitement you felt as a kid when you finally received the special toy you were hoping for?

The packaging probably displayed nice bold colors, fuzzy little animals or bright graphics.

The clear blister plastic enticed you by letting you view the precious treasure within the box.

Although we may not consciously know it, graphic design and packaging have been an influence in our lives since we were children and continues on through to adulthood.

Inspiration on store shelves
Becoming a good graphic designer takes creative thinking, good visual acumen, and even a sense of humor. But every graphic designer needs some sort of inspiration in order to keep the creative juices flowing.

In this series we’ll explore the Internet to glean some of the most imaginative and inventive packaging produced by graphic designers.

If you are looking for creative inspiration, the lowly package is certainly a good place to start.

Tea bag container
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Here is a concept design for a new way to package tea bags. Each individual bag is enclosed in a pyramid shaped box. The design was created by designer Gabriello Re.

It’s coffee; not a USB stick
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Those who like tech will immediately see the resemblance of this packaging to a thumb drive or USB memory stick. But it is neither. It is actually a unique way to package fresh coffee. The designs were produced by Fizi Pao.

Let them eat (butter) cake
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We’ve all seen cake boxes. Sometimes they are plain white or in some cases, they have simple decorations on them. But the butter cakes baked and packaged in Nanatsukahara, Japan, well, takes the cake.

The box design, by T-Square Design Associates, is elegant and simple on the outside. The inside liner is decorated with a printed scene of the outdoors. You get a treat for the eyes as well as your palette in one sitting.

It was a dark and stormy night…
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When cold weather sets in at home, one of the ways to warm up is to bundle up in a warm sweater and enjoy a good, hot bowl of soup.

Thirdperson Designs has taken this literally and created hot beverage sleeves to wrap around winter soup products. Feeling toasty yet?

Graphic design school and packaging courses
If you are interested in designing graphics that virtually everyone will see, you may want to explore the realm of packaging design.

Graphic design colleges can provide you with the essential education you need to qualify for jobs in the industry. Speak to a graphic design school representative today to find out more about packaging and design courses.

Think outside the box…
In this contest you will literally have to do this. Zepter International is announcing an open call to all designers for its Zepter International Design Award contest.

“Zepter International is pleased to announce this year’s open competition for designers and artists from around the world who wish to take part in the Box for Everything & Nothing 2011 exhibition.

“The main task is to design a box of any shape that’s functional and preferably progressive and environmentally aware.”

The contest details
Your submission may be a box of any shape. The minimum dimension for your box should be no less than 10×10 cm (3.9×3.9 inches). The maximum dimension for your box should be no larger than 30×30 cm (11.8×11.8 inches).

* Your box/design should be signed by you
* Your box must be functional with added artistic and aesthetic ….values
* You must fill out a completed application form
* Include a typed biography of yourself plus the relevant details ….about your entry
* Include color photographs or digital media that is 13×18 cm or ….larger in hires of your piece
* No conceptual work will be considered
* Works in glass, metal, plastic, ceramics, and composite materials are acceptable

Send your entries to:

ZEPTER INTERNATIONAL BRID MARKETING
ARTZEPT 2011 “BOX FOR EVERYTHING & NOTHING”
via Sibilla Aleramo 13
20092 Cinisello Balsamo (MI) - Italy

Your piece must arrive at the contest offices by October 20, 2011.

Contest Rules
The sponsors have given several preliminary rules for this contest:

* ArtZept 2011 is open competition for designers and artists from ….around the world.
* Each designer or artist can submit one entry only.
* No purely conceptual work will be considered for the exhibition.
* Works in all techniques, glass, metal, plastic, ceramics, and ….composite materials will be considered.
* Given the insurance costs, no exhibit whose worth exceeds 400 € ….will be considered for the exhibition.
* None of the selected and exhibited works may be withdrawn from ….the exhibition before the closing date.

Read the contest guidelines for complete details

Prizes
Winning entries will be part of a traveling exhibition that will be displayed in major cities around the world. Winning pieces will also be featured in an exhibition catalog.

In addition, cash prizes and merchandise will be given to the winners:

* 1st prize: €10,000 ($13,853 USD)
* 2nd prize: €4,000 ($5,541 USD) worth of Zepter products
* 3rd prize: €3,000 ($4,156 USD) worth of Zepter products

Contest links and other information
The contest deadline is October 20, 2011. There are no entry fees for this contest. The following links provide more contest information:

Official website
Complete contest guidelines
Application form (PDF document)
Gallery Pieces
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Graphic design school and package design
When you walk down the aisles of a department store or supermarket, most of the products you see are in some sort of packaging. The illustrators who created the graphics and images on the boxes and containers have a good eye for design.

If you are interested in how to make products more appealing through visual presentation, an education at a graphic design college can help you understand design principles and techniques.

Speak to your graphic design school representative to find out what sort of opportunities are available to you in this interesting field of advertising design.

Look, laugh and listen
In this article we’ll show more of the graphic design mistakes that slipped through the cracks during the production phase. Were these errors made under tight deadlines or too much pressure? These are the times when visual gaffes happen.

Some slip-ups are understandable while others could have been entirely preventable. Whatever the case, we hope that the mistakes of others can help all of us to be more careful when producing our images.

Have a good laugh and file these “lessons” away until you need them…especially when you only have a few hours left till deadline. Our thanks go to the members of photodisasteters.com for finding all of these gems or should we say lumps of coal?

Sweat the little stuff
Sometimes it’s the little stuff that gets past the gatekeepers during production. The errors aren’t big ones but they do point out that someone didn’t take the time to be more precise in the editing of the images.

In this case, an ad for the Audi A5 dashboard looks elegant and sporty except for one little detail.
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If you look closely between the 5 and 6 on the tachometer (left dial) you’ll see that the image has the rpm markers missing.

Yes, it’s just a little detail but car fans will immediately notice the omission.

This would be OK for the general public but to a car fan it’s a definite no-no.
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Was it really worth it?
Large businesses and companies spend a great deal of ad money to get the word out on their products; the ads cost a princely sum to produce.

Scarlett Johansson has represented Moët beverages for several years and this photo is one of the many she posed for in the Moët magazine ads.

But if you consider that Moët probably spent hundreds of thousands, if not millions, to have this ad produced, you may have said to yourself, “I could have done that…and probably a lot cheaper too.”
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This ad is about as “cut and paste” as you can get and we don’t mean that in a good way.

The balloons were shot separately in a studio (note the double highlights on many of them), while Ms. Johansson was photographed on a couch during another photo session.

The background (out of focus) was used as the backdrop for this image. Drop out the green screen behind the balloons and Ms. Johansson, do a few layers and voila, you have a composite image.

There’s nothing wrong, inherently with the concept, but considering the cost of this ad we think that Moët received the short end of the stick when the contract was signed with this ad agency.

Sweat the little stuff, again…
Sometimes it’s cost effective to use an old graphic for an event that happens annually. All you have to do is to change the year or date and you’re done.

Not so fast, bud. You have to be careful that you’ve changed all the important graphics in the image to make sure none of the old dates are still present. Can you spot the error in this image?
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The year “09” appears correct but if you look at its reflection you can see that it says “08” from the previous year’s ad.

You can see the enlarged ad here and the actual mistake here.

Graphic design school
Talent can help you attain a career in graphic design; graphic design schools help you to master the techniques of using various elements to produce professional graphics.

If you are a graphic designer, continued education classes are available at your graphic design college. These courses can bring you up to speed on the latest software and hardware applications.

If you are planning to attend a graphic design school, speak to your school counselor about the various career training options available to you in this fast-moving industry.

Next time…
Not everything that is a “mistake” is a mistake. In some cases graphic designers and art directors break the rules to make a point or draw attention to the subject at hand.

Stay tuned for examples in next week’s article on Graphic design mistakes and blunders.

Learn from the mistakes
Graphic design schools can teach you the proper design principles needed to become a proficient graphic designer, but sometimes mistakes are the defining things that help you to learn what works and what doesn’t.

In the next few articles we will show you the mistakes of others. The comforting part is they are not your mistakes.

The “funny” side is these errors were made by the professionals, which gives us all comfort that even the best of us can make mistakes.

In the following graphics we’ll provide a short commentary on what went wrong and what we can learn from these missteps.

We want to give a big thanks to all the members of the website psdisasters.com for providing all of the leads.

Size really does matter
A good rule of thumb when assembling composite images is to be aware of the proper size perspectives of different objects as they relate to one another. In the case of this Onkyo sound system ad, something has gone awry.
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There are lots of interesting elements in the background of this ad: musicians, singers and a miniature elephant.

It is understood that the various people and animals represent the clarity of the sound system, but the tiny elephant and other disproportional elements makes the ad look cheap.
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Physiology 101
If you took biology, anatomy or physiology classes in high school or college, you’ll remember a great many graphics and illustrations of the human body and how it works.

When it comes to human anatomy, the structure and “rightness” of what a typical body looks like is second nature to most of us. In this ad, the model strikes an elegant pose. But something is wrong…
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The dress the model is wearing is draped a certain way so that her legs appear to be disjointed from her body. Is it a bad camera angle or a Photoshop mistake? Only the art director knows.
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One, two, three, four…
Although graphic design is primarily about images, graphics and layout, the need to be accurate in numbers is also very important. In this poster for a fighting exhibition, the contenders look ready and willing to fight.

But does one competitor have an unfair advantage in the scheduled bout?
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If you look closely at the opponent on the left, he is striking a pose with his fists. But the odd thing about the pose is the number of knuckles showing through his boxing glove. It appears this man has six fingers!

In reality, this is just an example where a little Photoshop magic could have helped. The extra “knuckle” showing is actually his palm appearing through an opening in the glove.

The other fighter also shows the opening, but it doesn’t appear like a finger as in the case of the fighter, Bonnar.
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Graphic design school and principles of design
Layout, perspective, color and design are some of the important elements you’ll learn at graphic design college. These graphic design principles will help you to create and produce images of professional quality.

The attention to detail, making sure all the graphics are presented properly, and ensuring that your piece is free of mistakes is up to you.

Next time…
In part two of “Photoshop mistakes and blunders” we’ll show you more examples of how little details can make the difference between a great design and an unintentionally funny one.

Why Are You a Graphic Designer?
Or the question could also be “Why do you want to be a graphic designer?” Although these questions seem to be somewhat simplistic it is an important step in determining if you have what it takes to become one.

But let’s take this a few steps beyond; you may have what it takes to become a successful graphic designer but will you be a fulfilled and happy graphic designer?

Learning from the Best
In this series we’ll draw from the insights of designers not only in graphic design but other fields outside the scope of the liberal arts.

Hopefully we’ll be able to glean some sage wisdom from their experiences in the real world of design.

Some of their statements will ring unusually true with us because they are based upon situations that we have either experienced or seen.

But in the long run this series will try to provide solace and wisdom to designers who “put it out there” every day for the love of designing and not necessarily the money.

Failure: The Consequences

“The essential part of creativity is not being afraid to fail.”

–Edwin H. Land

Edwin Land was the inventor and designer of the Polaroid Instant Camera. His invention enabled people to take photographs and have a developed print in hand in less than 60 seconds.

Land’s work ethic was legendary as he would often forget to eat, change his clothes or take needed rest breaks because he was so intent on his research and development.

He would literally wear out his assistants with his incredible focus and energy. To keep up with his marathon work schedule he assigned different teams to assist him. When one team was exhausted, the next team would come in and so on.

Dr. Land understood that failure can either stop you dead in your tracts or afford valuable information and experience on how to improve and find a solution to a problem.

He opted for the later and the result of his efforts was the Instant Camera.

Creativity and Rejection
If you are in the creative arts you can probably identify with how failure or rejection can sometimes sting.

But as Edwin Land discovered, failure is sometimes the prerequisite for continued creativity and growth.

Coping with rejection and failure is easier said than done but if we can catch a glimpse of what Edward Land saw in being unafraid of failure; we can keep our creativity alive and well.

First Things First: Graphic Design School
The saying goes that you can’t run before you learn to walk. Design is similar; you can’t design before you have the tools. Graphic design colleges can help you to understand design principles and techniques.

Graphic design schools can polish up your raw talent and point you in the right direction for a design career so check with your local graphic design college for its course curriculum and classes.

Next Time…
If you are a graphic designer or manager and need your staff or coworkers to help you accomplish a task, have you ever wondered what the best way to motivate them is?

Find out next week in part two of Graphic Design for Love or Money. You may be surprised.

Until then, keep on designing!