Video reflection A

How it is made

There are six episodes of packaging, showing different types of packaging processes. It is very important for industrial designers, because packaging is a very important part of design process. It is when the customers will actually decide if they are going to purchase the product. Therefore, packaging design is as important as the product itself, and there is no point in designing something on computer, and do not know how the packaging are made, we can design an amazing look package with computer software, but we would not be able to control the real product production, which is why it is important to view these videos and understand how the packaging are made, and that is how we design.

There are many things that I discovered and learnt in these videos, which can help me in my future design, as these are videos of how the real world works, and it is more convincing then listening to just theory, because personally, I can gain more from viewing than listening without an image showing me what it is like. As mentioned in the video of how cardboard boxes were made, it was designed purely by accident. Nothing is formed by accidents, but ideas can be formed by anything. And these videos showed me a few very important points. Even as simple as a cardboard box, and a juice pack, there are many process involves, for example, a juice box includes many layers, and each layers contain their own use, and it is not just for designing purposes, and there are many things needed to be considered, such as food safety for food container, and strength for cardboard boxes.

Another important point I get from the videos are that packaging are made in mass production, not many process are made by man. Most of the processes are made by machines, and the speed of the process is simply what amazed me. Especially the process of making tubes, the video showed the actual speed of how they were made, and the speed is just too fast for my eyes to even catch up.

Also, when designing packaging, we need to consider the recycling part, because looking at the recycling part of the video, many waste just goes into land field. And some of them will produce toxic gas. As the world is really having trouble with global warming issues, I realize it is very important to design things green, and look after our Earth more. The production of the containers such as plastic bottles involves recycled PET, and it is one of the ways of how we can help.

In conclusion, due to the amount of word limits, I am not able to express everything I want, but there are many things I learnt from the videos, and messages to take home. The packaging is mass produced, and they are extremely fast. It is also important to think about the recycling part of packaging while we are designing.

Giving packaging a new life

There are seven episodes on giving packaging a new life, these videos show the importance of recycling and how recycling can extend the lifespan of a material, and it is important for industrial designers to understand and put these videos in mind when designing packages. Because as the world is short on resources, it is important that we make packaging as recyclable as we can.

I was amazed by the recycling process of tetrapak, because parts of the process are used to recycled for use of cements. And it is hard to imagine that a soft paper packaging juice box, can turn into a powder form that will eventually become such a hard surface material. And it is a very smart and handy machine they have to separate the material due to the material properties, and weight.

In the last few years, recycling has been very successful in Germany, but I personally still reckon that there are a lot of things we can still do to make things work better. Because I still see that there are a lot of process and energy being consumed during the process of recycling, and it is not a very good sign, because more energy used in the process means there are going to be money involved. And if it costs too much to recycle materials, not many people are going to be willing to do it.

Therefore, I realise it is needed for the industrial designers to design packages in a way where the package is designed green, and in a form where recycling does not take a long process, or possibly be reused, which does not require any machines and energy. What I mean is for example, a container to be used after the initial purpose of the packaging, and then used for other things, such as containing other things, or be used for other purposes.

From the videos, I understand the importance of recycling, and how not all material are at the end of its lifecycle even if the consumer is done with it. There is a lot more we need to consider other than just the look of the packaging.