Graphics Retail Project: McDonalds Happy Meal Packaging

McDonald's Happy Meal Packaging

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Although, I am not doing a fast-food store or shop that sells food, I thought the 'Happy Meal' box is a very effective example of packaging. The 'Happy Meal' box which is used in fast-food restaurant chain McDonald's, is for the children's meal they serve at the restaurant. The 'Happy Meal' started in 1979, specifically targeted at a children market, thus the food size is smaller the packaging is usually bright and very colourful as it is targeted at young children who would eat the meal.

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The McDonald's 'Happy Meal' package also often have cut out pieces in them, which gives the buyers something to play with and amuse themselves, (see above images). The handle of the box is a yellow letter 'M' relating to the logo of the restaurant. Making a clear relationship between the packaging and the company. I think ensuring the packaging is recognisable as part of a certain company is important so people can recognise the brand.

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Often the surface design of the McDonald's 'Happy Meal' is of cartoons characters, characters from films, books or fun animated characters created by the McDonald's company. Children are able to play games on the box and enjoy being able to colour a picture, complete a maze or just solve a few puzzles. I like that the packaging is able to be as fun as the product inside it, and that is why I believe this is an effective piece of packaging.

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Children are able to cut out tokens and characters to keep. I think it is a good idea to make the packaging fun, as it represents the product as quite enjoyable. The McDonald's 'Happy Meal' offers a meal, a plastic toy figure, but also a shaped box to entertain someone whilst they consume the contents of the box. Overall it allows the child to have an exciting fast-food experience, and also be able to see what they have completed at the end of the meal.

After seeing the McDonald's boxes I think I will trail with creating my own box with a fun surface design.

Image Sources: 1. McDonald's official website
2. http://chrishowkerillustration.blogspot.com
3-4. http://www.eurosouvenirland.com
5. http://www.thestrong.org
6. http://www.eurosouvenirland.com

Graphics Retail Project: Packaging Research

Packaging Research Soapworks - designed by

LUCY HARGRAVES

Graphics Retail Project: Cool Packaging - Carlo Giovani

Cool Packaging - Carlo Giovani's Designs

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Carlo Giovani is a Brazilian artist uses a range of mediums including paper and computer programme. Giovani works as an illustrator, designer, paper engineer and animator. Above are his packaging designs, which uses paper engineering to create. Images 1 & 2 are part of the artist's '{PAPER TOY} Arte Attack', which uses packaging to store stationary, among other items. Giovani uses brightly coloured surface design which makes the packaging look more for children, which is likely to be the targeted audience. The patterns printed on the surface of the packaging help make the designs stand out. Giovani's work is very skillful and creating little characters out of paper as packaging is very effective. The little animals especially target young children because the use of the bright greens and pinks targets both girls and boys, but also it looks very playful having small smiling characters.

Image sources: Images 1 & 2 part of Carlo Giovani's {PAPER TOY} Arte Attack ; Image 3 - {PACKAGE} Chinese Tea Box. ALL images can be found on Carlos Giovani's official website

Graphics Retail Project: Cool Packaging - Bridy Juice

Cool Packaging - Bridy Juice

These are images of a carton packaging concept called 'Birdy Juice'. They have been created by Jeksel also known as Mats Ottdal, a Norwegian Graphic Designer and Illustrator. The packaging is creative and I like the idea of incorporating a character into the packaging shape. This stands out from many other drink cartons I have seen, that is why I like it. It is also very clever, using parts of a carton, to shape into a penguin. With just a change of colour and facial design the carton has the ability to change into another type of bird. An adaptable piece of packaging can be very useful, when wanting to change the packaging for a season or limited period amount of time. For example for Easter having a rabbit shaped drinks carton.

This is a good example of effective packaging, and in my packaging experiments I may look into character shaped packaging.

Sources of images: Jekel's official website.

Graphics Retail Project - BentWorld - CANS

BentWorld: CANS

I think when creating packaging being creative makes the piece stand out, so after creating some basic shapes from nets, I began researching packaging which stands out. I came across these spray cans produced by Kidrobot. These appear in BentWorld: Vandals Series. I really like these because they really stand out. I like how the creator has used characters and developed them into packaging. This makes the work individual and distinctive. The range of colours also gives the buyer options, adding a little extra to the packaging. This is something I will take out when creating my packaging, doing a little extra so the buyer has options.

Source of images: http://www.behance.net/gallery/BentWorld-CANS-Artist-Series/2486845

Graphics Retail Project: Making 3D Shapes

From Nets to Shapes

I used previously created shape nets to experiment creating different shapes. Shapes included a cylinder, cube, and cone. This helped me to try out different packaging designs and what might suit my particular product and shop best. The shapes I created are quite messy, with masking tape parts on show, but it helped me see what shapes are easier to make than others. I also know for the final packaging it would need to be a lot neater.