business cards (part 2)

Dear Friends, lets take a look at this week's picture....


Ok, I've blurred the contact details out but in this picture, there's a card somewhere... a ghost card.... ok, that was lame but sorry, couldn't help myself.

Well, what I wanted to highlight was; sometimes, being a little too creative can be bad... I understand that the owner of this transparent plastic card wanted to stand out when they passed their cards out and I must say it is impressive. However, when you put in on your table or in your card holder box, there is a possibility that the card could disappear especially if it is placed between a white based card.

So, the point of this whole entry? sometimes is pays to put a little more practicality into your design and sacrificing a little creativity then to have that creativity work against you such as in this case.

Packaging and its role

Dear Friends,

Apologies about the late blog update but I was away on a conference. I'm part of a Business Network group called BNI (Business Network International) They are all about helping and teaching business individuals to generate business by referal. You can find them at www.bni.com

They recently had their KL 2008 conference which was a 2 day networking meeting of 500 over business owners from all over the world. I must say I had a ball of a time meeting new people. But enough about that, lets get on with this week's entry.

Perhaps this is an extension to what the last blog entry is about but I believe that packaging design has 2 roles to fulfill.

Its first being to ensure the product gets noticed and jumps out at consumers on the supermarket shelf. With over 1 million consumer brands available today at your average supermarket, a packaging which fails to excite or grab anyone's attention is doomed to failure regardless of the quality of the product.

Next, a packaging must also deliver value, meaning it must be seen to be worth the price which has to be paid for the product. This is what sets the distinction between a perceived substandard product and a high quality product. Bear in mind both products may be of similar quality however, the deciding factor of which product to buy almost surely lies with how the packaging looks.

I strongly believe that if any packaging you design delivers in these 2 areas, you product will stand out in a crowd and help ultimately contribute to the brand you're trying to build.