The Design Futures Packaging team provide cutting edge structural packaging design independent of manufacture. Our experienced packaging professionals have a track record of creating innovative and award-winning packaging solutions. Our studio embedded in the Art, Design and Media Research Centre creates opportunities for cross-collaboration with academics and emerging talent to apply world-leading research expertise and fresh thinking to our practice. Industrial prototyping capabilities turn ideas into tangible solutions through rapid iteration. This process ensures that our structural concepts provide a solid foundation for real-world development.
Structural packaging is the physical manifestation of a brand. It can create stand-out, credibility and authenticity through its tactile qualities. Unlike graphic design which relies on visual communication, structural packaging creates narrative through the haptic experience of texture and form. Imagine the difference between touching the warm fibrous surface of a paper bag against a crinkly plastic wrap; or the cool, curved weightiness of a glass jar in your hand versus a steel can with a low-grade paper wrap. The material choices, operation and geometry of a structure define performance, function and the user experience. Understanding how packaging is opened and ease of accessibility are central themes in our research and design thinking. Where structure provides the literal connection between user and brand it has to be made frustration-free from purchase to dispossession.
The sustainability challenge is critical to the future of both business and planet. From a design perspective it is daunting and exciting in equal measure! The false dichotomy between business and the environment must be challenged. Optimally designed packaging can protect profit and planet by reducing waste and creating market advantage. From an environmental perspective, we contextualise our packaging designs against the total impact of a products resource use from manufacture and transportation to retail and consumption. Our experienced designers and material specialists can specify the optimal material, size and format to minimise waste for the whole lifecycle of the product.
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