Why is illustration becoming increasingly popular in packaging design?(2)

Having said all this, is illustration all there is to packaging design? Definitely not, and definitely not.

The use of illustration in packaging is a trend, but not an easy one.

First of all, different categories of packaging design and different product formats require very strict illustration.

This question goes back to the principle of packaging design, first of all, illustration itself is divided into many kinds, such as: thick thick style, fashion flat style, Japanese style, American style, abstract, line drawing, printmaking style, pop style, etc., the first you use illustration should think about which kind of illustration suitable for you to design the packaging category!

Now some illustrators directly start to design packaging, make out the packaging is not sold, why? Because they are illustrating for illustration, and do not understand the meaning of packaging design, and do not understand the purpose of design, the purpose of design is to sell goods, and illustrators tend to be more self-important, which is also easy to become a form of self-indulgence of illustration.

As mentioned earlier, some products in different categories are not suitable for large illustrations, or even all illustrations to show, for example: the category of condiments, maybe new brands can use illustration to get high, anyway, it is a gamble, maybe the illustration style is also more attractive to consumers' eyes.

But big brands tend to be more cautious. There are many purposes to be conveyed by the packaging, the most important of which is the kind of food this product can make and the need for visual, appetising pictures (not absolutely, but mostly), as we can see when we look at the packaging designs of brands such as Haidilao, Good People, Dezhuang and Grassland Red Sun.

It's true that illustrated packaging has reshuffled the packaging design industry over the past few years, but it's an unbreakable truth that everything is a period of rapid growth and fatigue, and a process that has been repeated throughout the long history of human culture.

You can now go to the supermarket again and see that more and more packaging design is actually leaning more towards a simple and bright style, also because of the proliferation of illustrated packaging, many of which are substandard and make the display of a wide range of products more fancy and confusing.

So, illustration style packaging design will be popular for a while, but by no means forever, just like many Japanese packaging designs a few years ago, which were basically flowery, with very full images and lots of details, but when Kenya Hara's work appeared, it was refreshing and shouted clean and beautiful.