10Good Things Come in Great Packages

Be yourself; everyone else is already taken.

—OSCAR WILDE

What You See Is What You Should Get

Design (of both the product and its wrapping) is not about being artistic; it’s about creating something that communicates its value in a unified, aesthetically pleasing, captivating, and easy-to-understand way. It is about the whole serve-up, the whole gestalt of a product. “Product and packaging have to be one and the same. Envision the product’s characteristics—how is it sold, how is it used by the consumer? All the consumer touch points have to fit the brand attributes to its look and the look of its packaging,” says Steven Rank, principal and founder of SARANKCO, a design firm in New York City.

In that sense, ...

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