Everyday Design Part I

Design doesn't just include technological design, but also includes things like food. Today, I want to share with you guys my thoughts on food packaging design and evaluate it based on its aesthetics and utilitarian value. I will be trying to do this through a random Google image search so that I can be a bit more unbiased in my evaluation of food products.

This one I like - it's apparently a design for a brand of "Zipp smoothie" Like most modern design, this one stays true to the limited color combination (there are only three main colors in any of the three design) which allows this to be a very seamless design. With the emphasis on the lighter variety of these respective colors (the red isn't deep red and the green is a light green) allows for a very "light" feel. Perhaps I find most interesting about this design is the concept of a zipper on the bottle. This has two implications - that drinking this "healthy" product will allow a consumer to reduce his/her weight in such a way that they will be able to zip up a tight-fitting jacket for example. However, I dislike the incredibly small font used by these bottles - they are too small to be entirely practical. Even still, the giant fruits does still give some indication of what the contents are like. Otherwise, the bottle, is well a bottle and it serves its function just fine. The design is mostly good, but only because of the concept. Otherwise, any other design are merely forced abstract portrayal of the product information. In short, sticking a triangle and writing on it "smoothie" is convenient, but not very aesthetically different. In a world full of competition, this is not a good thing.

As opposed the previous one, this one is extremely effective at conveying what is inside the bottle; preferring to utilize the color of its contents to provide the background of the sides of the container. These are the perfect example of utilitarian design which allows important information such as ingredients to be displayed on the front side of the product. This is good, as it condenses two important consumer information when it comes down to food (what is it and what is it made of) The colors also help deliver stylistic differentiation but still maintaining the three color rule to provide for a pleasant experience (the yellow font on the lemonade on the left is an example of color choice) 

In short, these two images display widely different approaches to design. I would like to call the first style as an artistic interpretation of design - the incorporation of symbolic ideas to create a concept to market. The second one I would like to think of as an very utilitarian response to design, pursuing function over design, but adding design principles to make it appealing to the consumer. I think both of these forms excel at the same thing, but in different ways.