Picture the Perfect Package
Brand visualization software that integrates structure and graphics is further enhancing the prototyping process.
July 2007 by Jean-Marie Hershey
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Consider this: It might not have taken our ancestors thousands of years to perfect the working wheel if they’d had access to 3D visualization technologies.
Because new designs often incur unexpected problems, a physical prototype is often built to test the appearance and/or function of a new design before starting production. All prototypes have their genesis in two fundamental questions: What will it look like? and, How will it perform? Correctly executed, all prototypes also have in common an ability to speed the design process by enabling marketers, key decision makers, and retail buyers to evaluate new packaging as it will really look and/or perform, prior to committing to any sort of manufacturing process.
Even further upstream, however, consumer product companies (CPCs) intent on differentiation, higher quality, and shorter time-to-market are discovering the persuasive benefits of virtual design and testing of package concepts prior to physical prototyping. While digital mockups and physical comps both shorten the product development cycle and reduce time-to-market, electronic visualizations permit modifications to color, shape, graphics, and text without reference to a physical sample, especially when the time and money needed to create a physical prototype are in short supply.
Digital technologies enable designers to visualize the appearance and performance of a package as a still image or in 3D animation, permitting them to modify package design features and accurately predict the impact of those modifications. The benefits of engineering and manipulating a package in cyberspace can be very attractive for marketers who must choose among multiple designs, perform a virtual side-by-side analysis of a packaging concept with competitive designs, or visualize a packaging concept under specific lighting conditions, among other requirements.
“Product visualization enables the designer, brand owner, or converter to have more choices about what a package may turn out to be,” says Mark Vanover, VP, marketing for Esko-Graphics, whose flagship CAD program, Esko ArtiosCAD, currently controls a lion’s share of the folding carton, corrugated, and POP markets. The company further claims that its Esko Visualizer, the first product to result from Esko’s recent acquisition of Stonecube, LLC, is a key component in achieving complete, “product realistic” visualization on the desktop.
Aye, but where’s the rub?
From a design perspective, the creation of a package involves two distinct workflows representing structure and graphic design. “In order to design anything in 3D,” says Vanover, “you need to know what the geometry of the package is, and you need to understand how the graphics get placed on that geometry.” Until relatively recently, these two workflows were ran solo. The trade shop would receive structural (CAD) information, but would be concerned primarily with manipulating graphics. The converter would be concerned with designing and manufacturing a structure that performs correctly, and thereafter with making as many boxes as possible. Fair enough—in theory. “But what happens if the graphics guy doesn’t completely understand how the carton is going to be folded, and puts a UPC code underneath the flap?,” Vanover asks. “You don’t learn that until you at least get to the prototyping stage or even closer to manufacturing.”
Because new designs often incur unexpected problems, a physical prototype is often built to test the appearance and/or function of a new design before starting production. All prototypes have their genesis in two fundamental questions: What will it look like? and, How will it perform? Correctly executed, all prototypes also have in common an ability to speed the design process by enabling marketers, key decision makers, and retail buyers to evaluate new packaging as it will really look and/or perform, prior to committing to any sort of manufacturing process.
Even further upstream, however, consumer product companies (CPCs) intent on differentiation, higher quality, and shorter time-to-market are discovering the persuasive benefits of virtual design and testing of package concepts prior to physical prototyping. While digital mockups and physical comps both shorten the product development cycle and reduce time-to-market, electronic visualizations permit modifications to color, shape, graphics, and text without reference to a physical sample, especially when the time and money needed to create a physical prototype are in short supply.
Digital technologies enable designers to visualize the appearance and performance of a package as a still image or in 3D animation, permitting them to modify package design features and accurately predict the impact of those modifications. The benefits of engineering and manipulating a package in cyberspace can be very attractive for marketers who must choose among multiple designs, perform a virtual side-by-side analysis of a packaging concept with competitive designs, or visualize a packaging concept under specific lighting conditions, among other requirements.
“Product visualization enables the designer, brand owner, or converter to have more choices about what a package may turn out to be,” says Mark Vanover, VP, marketing for Esko-Graphics, whose flagship CAD program, Esko ArtiosCAD, currently controls a lion’s share of the folding carton, corrugated, and POP markets. The company further claims that its Esko Visualizer, the first product to result from Esko’s recent acquisition of Stonecube, LLC, is a key component in achieving complete, “product realistic” visualization on the desktop.
Aye, but where’s the rub?
From a design perspective, the creation of a package involves two distinct workflows representing structure and graphic design. “In order to design anything in 3D,” says Vanover, “you need to know what the geometry of the package is, and you need to understand how the graphics get placed on that geometry.” Until relatively recently, these two workflows were ran solo. The trade shop would receive structural (CAD) information, but would be concerned primarily with manipulating graphics. The converter would be concerned with designing and manufacturing a structure that performs correctly, and thereafter with making as many boxes as possible. Fair enough—in theory. “But what happens if the graphics guy doesn’t completely understand how the carton is going to be folded, and puts a UPC code underneath the flap?,” Vanover asks. “You don’t learn that until you at least get to the prototyping stage or even closer to manufacturing.”
Companies Mentioned:
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