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Design packaging for an imaginary Australian product to sell in Australia.

It is important that students are given every chance to be creative and innovative. By making their designs for an imaginary product we assist students to avoid plagiarism and potential legal problems should they copy any current designs, labels/logos etc. Focusing on Australia is particularly relevant to the secondary school entrants, as it relieves the need to think about packaging strength for overseas transport and negates the need to consider any packaging/ labelling laws from other countries.

 

Judging

Judges are looking for creativity, innovation, an understanding of packaging issues and how well students have completed the brief and rationale requirements. Judges will place emphasis on the students’ rationales in order to allow students in schools with few technology resources to compete with students from better resourced schools.

Judges will not be judging the quality of the students PowerPoint presentation. They are more interested in the content the presentation contains. Please be aware that PowerPoint presentations with too many special features can distract judges from the quality of the content. Teachers who wish to assess students PowerPoint skills should establish their own assessment criteria and assess this separately.

 

Design Process

It is not necessary to have access to design software or equipment as the rationale will assist judges to determine the students’ level of understanding and intentions to produce the packaging design.

Students are welcome to use currently available packaging in their mock ups. However, they must clearly state in their rationale why they chose both the shape and material used in that packaging.

Research into packaging issues should always be started before the design process starts.

 

Preparing students before designing begins.

It is suggested that teachers spend time with students improving their understanding of the necessity of packaging in today’s modern world as well as considering environmental issues. It is also worthwhile to remember that packaging is not just about food, consider everything from toys to personal care products and pharmaceuticals.

Some issues to consider include:

> Packaging allows food to be eaten out of season

> Snacks and drinks to be eaten on the go

> People working longer hours, more structured leisure time, leaving less time to prepare meals from scratch

> More and more people living on their own, needing smaller portions of food to avoid food wastage

> Consumers wanting food portion controlled, special dietary requirements

> Protection of expensive hi tech gadgets during transportation

> Higher awareness and need to protect food and goods from contamination and tampering

> Protecting of food without the need for refrigeration

> In the Health sector: protection of sterile products, correct dosages, life saving information on labels, stopping the spread of disease and infection

> Consumers Demand: freshness, convenience, environmentally responsible packaging, lightness and ease of use, correct information and labelling

> Retailers Demand: products that sell themselves so that they don’t need as many staff on the floor, products that stack efficiently and take up less shelf space

Packaging – protects, provides information, preserves, is essential to safety and well being.

Please utilise the fact sheets, FAQ’s and Useful links on the PCA website to further assist your research.

If you need information or research that is not on the website please contact Prudence Frost as soon as possible so that she can seek the answers for you.

Contact by email: prudence@pca.org.au

 

Strength and Market Testing

Most teachers will probably have done the ‘Egg Drop’ test at some stage or another with students, (Dropping a packaged egg from a distance to see if it breaks). If not, go to Online Lessons for an outline of this activity.

Strength testing can involve testing by dropping from various heights, crushing, having items placed on top of the package, travelling in cars, packed in secondary boxes etc.

Market testing simply involves students surveying their target audience. This may be before the design begins – to see what their target audience wants, or after – to see if they like the students design. Market testing should not assess target audiences interest in a particular product, it should assess whether or not the packaging design appeals enough for the product to be purchased above other similar products.

 

Materials

Some of the main manufacturers of different packaging materials:

Cardboard – Amcor, Visy, Carter Holt Harvey, Colorpak

Milk cartons, Cups, Bowls etc and other cardboard – Tetra Pak, Huhtamaki, Visy

Plastics (including bioplastics) – Amcor, VIP Packaging, Visy, SIGNUM, Sealed Air/Cryovac, Huhtamaki, SCS Plastics, Impact International, Plantic, Viscount Plastics

Foil Containers and Laminates – Confoil, Aperio Group

Aluminium – Alcoa Rolled Products

Steel and Metal Containers – Visy, Irwin and Sheehan, VIP Packaging, NCI, NCI Packaging Shop

Glass – O-I Asia Pacific, Amcor

Caps and Closures – Amcor, Chadwicks

Many of these companies have excellent websites including information or student sections. Alternatively you can contact their marketing departments for further information.

 

Plastic Codes

Code 1 – PET – Polyethylene Terephthalate – Drink Bottles

Code 2 – HDPE – High Density Polyethylene – Drink Bottles Colour

Code 3 – PVC – Polyvinyl Chloride – Chemical Resistance

Code 4 – LDPE –Low Density Polyethylene – Highly Flexible can be heat sealed

Code 5 – PP – Polypropylene – Strong light

Code 6 – PS Polystyrene – Stiff/rigid

Code 7 – Other

 

Secondary Students

Students at this level will be expected to demonstrate a high level of understanding of the roles, benefits and technical considerations of packaging in today’s world. Students and teachers should not be deterred by a lack of computer and technical resources, as their rationale should give the Judges a good understanding of their knowledge.

By this level, students should be considering the need for strength inside the package as well as outside and consider ways to stop a product from moving within the package during transportation. Protection from damage/waste along the supply chain is just as important a consideration environmentally as what happens to the environment when the package has finished being used by the consumer.

Students have been asked to consider in their designs how easily their product would stack for transportation. They may need to include information on how their design will stack efficiently in a secondary container (e.g. carton box) and then fit onto a standard Australian pallet for transportation. Efficiency in this area will avoid damage in transport (thus less damage and less environmental damage) and allows for maximum use of space leading to less trucks needing to be used.

The standard Australian pallet measures 1165mm by 1165mm.