Steve Kapsinow (bio)

The conference spanned three days. Day one (April 24) was for workshops. Days two and three were for the main conference. Keynote addresses were given in the morning while smaller sessions across three tracks occupied the afternoon.

Being only one man who attended only one day, I heard the morning keynote given by democratic designer extraordinaire Philippe Starck (you can read my news item on his speech at graphics.com) and sat in on three afternoon sessions:

• Sustainability in Graphic Design: It’s More than Soy Inks and Flecky Paper
• Designing for Multiple Audiences
•The Delicious Taste of Color: Making Color Work for you in your Products and Packages

Sustainability in Graphic Design: It’s More than Soy Inks and Flecky Paper

Speaker: Alexander Isley, Principal, Alexander Isley Inc. Redding, CT

Summary: While all designers should embrace environmentally-sound design, the challenge is to convince clients that it is a financially sound investment. The big companies, however, are the ones who need to make the change for there to be an impact. Isley noted that Wal-Mart has begun to implement sustainable strategies after realizing they can actually save money by doing so. A few trends in sustainable design include surface applied signage, raw silk materials for banners, and recycled chipboard. Isley claimed that while it may take more time to get these items produced, the cost increases are negligible.

Online Resources: Society for Environmental Graphic Design (SEGD), Institute for Sustainable Communication, greenbiz.com, Business for Social Responsibility

Designing for Multiple Audiences

Speakers: Todd Badgley, Vice President, LAGA; Frans Mahieu, Global Marketing Category Head, CIBA Vision

Summary: The overall message from this session was spend lots of money on market research and get to know your audiences well. Targeting general demographics won't cut it anymore. For instance, you can't simply target women age 18-24. There's too much diversity in that group. Once you've identified all your targets (including gatekeepers--those who sit between the seller and the target [i.e. mothers and doctors]), you need to draft a clear design objective and prioritize your messages.

Ethnography is a valuable research method because it allows you to observe your target audiences' habits. What people say often is not what they do. Then take this research and use it to deconstruct and reconstruct designs while making sure the different audiences have input along the way. Remember, color is the #1 equity on package design.

The Delicious Taste of Color: Making Color Work for you in your Products and Packages

Speaker: Ray Blackburn, Group Design Manager, Kraft Foods

Summary: With 70% of purchase decisions made at the shelf and color being the most important element of package design, it is important to get color right. Blackburn (obviously) focused on food products in his talk. He stated that most packaging innovation occurs with color and it also includes changing the color of the actual product, which most often occurs with kids food products. Blackburn also identified five color cues for food packaging:

• Better-for-you—green is the dominant color to indicate healthy aspects of food (i.e. Snackwells, Smuckers Light Sugar Free, Reduced Fat Oreos, Hellmann's Low Fat)

• Ethnic—certain color combinations represent ethnic roots (i.e. red/green for Italian food, gold/purple for soul food)

• Premium cues—gold, silver, black, and white all help to convey premium quality (i.e. Philadelphia cream cheese, Sapporo imported beer, Pepperidge Farm cookies)

• Natural Cues—shades of brown and earth tones used to convey authenticity

• Product color cues—clear packaging to show off products color is used to clarify flavor and form (i.e. simply organic spices).

Blackwell also used Campbell and Progresso soups to demonstrate the concept of color blocking. The objective of color blocking is to create a large unified shelf presence by designing packaging that looks the same from a distance, despite the different varieties. Campbell's consistent red header and Progresso's blue header accomplishes this.