Packaging Design with Matt Grantham

NEW DATE: 5th October, 9:30AM—12:30PM

Recommended for Designers, all levels.

$109.25 – $402.50

DATE AND TIME

LOCATION

If you have had little or no experience in packaging design and need an introduction to the field or would like to strengthen your skills and creative process, this class is for you.

About Matt and his Masterclass:

With over 20+ years of experience in brand and packaging design, Matt has worked on large-scale international brands through to small-scale 'garage' projects. Gaining a wide breadth of experience, covering brand and name creation, brand story building, copywriting, packaging, NPD, digital and corporate identity. As Creative Director of Onfire Design in Auckland, Matt currently oversees projects through the studio, taking the lead on project research and design strategy while proactively working with each client to get the most out of their brands — his experience is undoubtedly first-hand.

Through his own journey, Matt will guide you through the importance of developing and communicating a compelling brand story on ‘pack’. Understanding the client / their business, their products and consumers, to be empathic to them as well as the retail environment the product will live in. To dissect what the client wants to achieve while keeping an eye on opportunities they might have overlooked.

Case studies will give you examples of how to tackle a new product with a ‘fuzzy’ brief, and what to do when goalposts move (Matt tell us they always do!). We will finish the session by discussing where the future of packaging is heading to.

We asked Matt to tell us more about him and give us a preview of the key learnings you’ll be getting at his Masterclass in September:

Design Assembly: How long have you been designing packaging for? or How did you get into graphic design/packaging design?

Matt Grantham: Over 21 years (I am older than I look! ;)). I was more interested in structural design at Uni and carried that through into my first junior roles but landed at a studio in London which not only done structural design but the packaging (graphics) side too and soon gravitated toward that.

DA: Can you tell us about a few of your favourite and/or most challenging projects?

M: Hubbards can cover both of these. It has been immensely pleasing to be part of the refresh of the brand, working with the stakeholders to get them onboard and creating that first new muesli range that is now the overwhelming #1 in the marketplace. But also the challenge of maintaining that brand over the whole portfolio and retaining its essence over so many years (since 2012).

Sujon Frozen Berries — working with another iconic brand that had a management team that had very little experience in refreshing a retail brand.

Manaaki Condiments — a small Marae business initiative. Helping them brand a modern Maori food product range and getting them involved in the execution of the packs.

Untitled Wine — Working with a one-man band winemaker helping him execute a brand which had a compelling message about the bland state of wine industry branding.

DA: Who has influenced you in your career?

M: Some great Creative Directors over the years. Rob Coats from Coats Design being the main one. The importance of handcrafting a design of the Mac and also to trust your gut, learning to take only the best nuggets from qualitative research.

DA: What's this year about for you?

M: This year has been a challenging one. When I left Coats Design I had the opportunity of joining an established packaging studio in Auckland or to Onfire Design, which had done work in this area but was not well known for it with the task of changing that perception, among peers and potential clients.

DA: What do you think the future of packaging design?

M: The future of packaging... Eco will be a big one. Doing more with less packaging. Supermarket own-brands are making serious headway against the big players. Through packaging and INNOVATION. Helping clients tell this story of new, innovative products is growing. Helping the packs survive with no, or very little advertising, the whole idea of ‘packtervising’ is a cliche but still relevant. Keeping in mind where consumers are discovering brands – WOM, Social etc. Interaction with the consumer after purchase.

Ref: Eventbrite.co.nz