With this week’s Sirius-XM
merger approval, we take a nostalgic look back at our XM packaging experience.

About the Project

Packaging is a part of modern life. This article, an insight into the design of a consumer package for satellite radio provider XM, includes many aspects of a typical package development process. In the interest of time, we’ll skip research, diagnostic and technical methodology phases and concentrate on the basic iterative process steps in this article.

Contracted as a co-branded piece with equipment manufacturer, Delphi, the XM package is designed to contain a variety of product configurations while meeting the requirements of multiple retailers.

Thumbnails
(above: click for larger view)

The first stage of the package design process is broad idea generation with an eye toward reasonable possibility through the use of quick sketches called thumbnails—essentially a Brainstorm session on paper.

Even in this early ideation phase, function and manufacturing objectives established in earlier logistic explorations are at the forefront of the design rationale.

A plump and friendly ovate design—suitable for both pegged and stand-alone shelf display—captured the team’s attention. It features an interchangeable outer shroud designed to accommodate variable messaging and XM product differentiation.

Rough Refinements
(above: click for larger view)

Of the 32 initial thumbnails, five are selected for tighter “rough” conceptual sketches. The rough design stage serves several purposes. Roughs allow the customer to collaborate in a conceptual dialog with both Brainstorm and their own internal team.

In addition, roughs allow the design team to further reconcile a host of issues—from substrate selection to detail and aesthetic considerations. Increasingly the form is discussed with a heightened sensitivity to relative manufacturing requirements and capabilities.

Although computer-generated designs are great for visualization, introducing them too early in the development process can consume allotted resources and generate fewer options. Furthermore, their finished look can ignite concerns about exhausting budgets without the benefit of conceptual buy-in.

Design Control Drawings (DCD)
(above: click for larger view)

DCD drawings are to final fit and finish what roughs are to concepts. In this case, the forms are expressed as orthographic projections, i.e., front, right side and plan (top) views.

The primary intent of this phase is to convey relative proportions and relationships between forms within the package, i.e., to “control” the design. A rough and wispy hand drawn line could mean anything to a packaging engineer. Conversely, detailed and dimensioned schematics begin to define a working reality.

Of course, many issues were addressed during the XM DCD phase: Drop test considerations, proper cavity allowance for nested accessories, marrying the outer shroud with the stand-alone clamshell, substrate selection and opacity levels, inherent multi-part clamshell tooling considerations, etc.

Rapid Prototyped 3D Model
(above)

Project participants hailed from several continents. So, to help bridge geographic and language-based barriers, we produced a quick 3D model based on data and dimensioning extrapolated from the vector-based DCD drawings. The model proved a useful discussion tool in describing general functions of the package.

Aesthetic and Messaging
(above: click for more initial design examples)

Although this article primarily explores the physical form development of a package, the aesthetic process is important enough to warrant an article of its own.

Some aspects of messaging development begin as early as the thumbnail stage. However, on many levels, full graphic exploration doesn’t begin until a form factor direction is set. At retail, messaging and brand continuity are crucial.

A Finished Package
(above: click for larger view)

Although concessions were made along the way, the completed two-part package is remarkably similar to the original concept design in form and function.

Click here for more about Brainstorm.

“…a showcase of the best in sustainability,
technology and design.”

Living Wright

WIRED and LivingHomes magazine produced the WIRED Home, what they call “…a showcase of the best in sustainability, technology and design.”

Constructed in-factory and erected in an upscale area of Los Angeles in just two and a half days, the home represents a convergence of aesthetic and eco-awareness.

WIRED’s Smart Home harkens back to Frank Lloyd Wright’s Usonian concepts and organic design principles - with added technological advancements. One hundred years later, as oil prices and conservation become a global focus, we’re sure Wright would approve.

For details on the home here’s a link to the original WIRED article entitled WIRED Home by LivingHomes.

[image: klaxon]

Drawing Warmth
from the Cold of Concrete

Envisioneers

Transparent House, a San Francisco-based 3D design and visualization studio, allows clients to visually model end products long before committing them to finished processes.

Often, clients know what they want but can’t really envision it, much less articulate that vision to a vendor. The real value-add of Transparent House is not in delivering finished goods but in delivering that articulated vision.

And so it is with their variation on the concrete slab, transforming a cold commodity into warmth and art.

Inventive Allusion

Transparent House didn’t invent nor do they provide concrete etching. Their end product—three-dimensional modeling—allows them to package such concepts as something new and valuable. It helps customers envision new possibilities and unexpected applications through the illusion of reality.

Now that’s resourceful and inventive use of available marketing resources. A core benefit lesson for any brand marketer.

[via: Designspotter]

Vessel conceptual product rendering

Strong Concept + Strong Visualization

Creating a Personalized Beverage

According to their tagline, The Greener Grass.org is “Collaborating to design a better future.” With that and your health in mind, they created the Vessel concept, a system of components and options that would allow you to customize a drink to fit your personal tastes as well as your health and lifestyle needs.

With these three main bases and countless options, it’s about as far removed from today’s mainstream beverage model as you can get.

Bases: Nutrients to fit your lifestyle and demographic needs such as iron and calcium for women, or zinc and saw palmetto for men.

Flavors: Organic extracts to sate your specific tastebuds—everything from chocolate to wheatgrass, mango to mocha, or any imaginable combination in between.

Agents: Active ingredients like vitamins, minerals, and energy boosters for functional benefits—you name it, proteins or taurine, caffeine or ginseng—whatever you need.

The concept includes a reusable Vessel Lexan™ container strategically designed for optimum ingredient agitation.

Making the Concept Count

Programmatic design, packaging and convenience count in brand marketing. Whether or not the Vessel line ever comes to fruition, the concept is far more believable and supportable when visualized as a fully-branded product rendering.

Strong concepts become real through strong visualization.

UCI Irvine computer scientist Crista Lopes turned to Second Life in developing her rapid transit software called Skytran when access to real life high-end simulation technology proved prohibitive. Read the full Orange County article here.

[ via: Mal Burns ]