Almost every person has an access to international markets and brands thanks to the internet. This applies to inspiration, research, or shopping. Except for certain countries, everything is always accessible to everyone. What does it imply in terms of globalization and packaging design? Here is some good food for a nice thought.
Do the absence of national borders on the world of the web and free access to global trends imply that there is an international design language working everywhere? Do country-specific design codes still remain, and if so, how are they managed?
India’s leading manufacturer and supplier of corrugated boxes to e-commerce businesses Packman Packaging shares some ways to design your packaging to target the global market.
Design as a universal language
Tracking and labelling various cultures and design trends has never been more accessible. As international platforms, several social media platforms offer easy access to global design trends and developments through a simple tap on the app.
Designers mostly draw inspiration from worldwide events straightaway from the creative brainstorming phase. Driven by the requirement to create a relevant and lasting project, they always look to meet the needs of a heterogeneous audience, beginning with the creative vision.
Do creatives every time use an international design code?
Just sometimes, because there are excellent reasons why packaging in the US differs from France or Swedish packaging from the East-European countries. In other words, what works abroad just sometimes works in-house and vice versa.
People hailing from various cultures have diverse ideas of functionality and aesthetics. For strictly locally made products, for instance, it is common to see differences in packaging even between two products, to name a certain example. To hit the correct target at the national and international levels, you ought to be sensitive to regional needs and check any specific design codes.
Globalization and packaging design: Contrasting speeds
To utilize those design rules at the proper time and with the right project, you ought to know and respect them: the concept of naturalness, to name one, is visualized very differently in Asia than in Europe. Fruits, for an instance, need to be represented as bright as freshly polished bowling balls in the countries of the Far East. However, this graphic treatment is linked with artificiality and hyper-correction in the old continent, thus coming across as forced.
Healthy foods in the US have become part of daily life and are mostly associated with saturated and bold colours. In Europe, delicate colours and material impacts are still preferred instead.
While it is still perennial for the Swiss to have a tasty photo of the product over chocolate packaging, a stylized cocoa bean will seem sufficient in England. In Nordic regions, no more photographs of kids are displayed on diaper packs. In Southern European countries, however, the trend is still in vogue.
The luxury sector in Europe is still displayed with special processes like gold foil, silver, and spot varnish paint, while abroad, the attention is on the concept of decreasing in full “less is more” style.
