The World Of Graphic: Packaging Design Brief: Research

Today I would like to concentrate on what I can design in my new project about packaging design and do a bit of reaserch about the designs and their brands. I may come up with a amazing ideas and thoughts of how can I produce few good pieces of designs and then choose the best one at the end.

At the latest research I did on shoe packaging and shoes overall surprised me a lot. I wasn't aware of how many shoe designs I can take inspiration from. I have researched about 3 types of shoes I preffer to wear and think they could be good to design the branded packaging for. First of all are my favourite trainers.

Trainers are the most common shoes that are bought in the world. I don't know anybody who never had at least one pair of them. They are comfy and there are thousands of brands for trainers on this planet. I have researched brands like:

Nike
Addidas
New Balance
Levi's

The last one "Levi's" is mainly because I know there are some nice trainers out there in the Levi's catalogue ( as I'm personally working at one of the Levi's store ) but I wasn't too sure how the packaging are explored further.

So let's start from the beginning of the list:

Nike:
The Company was found on January 25th in 1964. Have been called Blue Rubbon Sports at the time by Bill Bowerman and Phil Knight and officially became Nike, Inc. on May the 30th in 1971. The company takes its name from Nike the Greek goddess of victory. Bill Bowerman was born in Portland, Oregon, and his father was former Governor of Oregon Jay Bowerman. His mother had grown up in Fossil. The family returned toi Fossil after the parents divorced in 1913 . Nike has contracted with more than 700 shops around the world and has offices located in 45 countries outside the U.S. Most of the factories are located in Asia, including Indonesia, China, Taiwan, India, Thailand, Vietnam , Pakistan, Philippines and Malaysia.

I quit like this those designs. Representing New York's most famous areas. And the black and white theme suits the topic very well as, usually the picture of New York are presented in Black and white colour.

This is very funky packaging design to be honets with you. I like the colours of the box because it of course suits the colours of the shoes presented. I like the texture of the box as well. The black outlines on the box and simple thick strip of Nike logo and name of the shoes is just very cool idea, because it is very simple but funky and I guess every girl would like to have one of those shoe boxes.

That shoe box is very nice as well. Separates two shoes from each other, and it looks like it's two separate shoe boxes in one piece. Also the colours matches the shoes.

Very good idea splitting two shoes with two the same boxes for one trainer each.

But it looks more like girly shoe box rather than unisex box, but I guess that was the idea. I haven't seen more designs or packaging like this with other colours or different version of Nike's trainers.

I have to admit, this is one of the best Nike's shoe packaging I have ever seen so far. I love the colours and the design. The way the box is spliting into half with a unique way, like thw box have been cracked in half. I am wondering how the shoes are insert into this box. There are no funky colours or doodles or anything like this on the packaging. just two colours but a very nice idea of packing design.

Another good design of Nike's packaging. Good matching colours and nice, and creative outlines on outside of the box. And yet again, this packaging goes mainly to a female audience, as I couldn't find any other male version or any over version of this shoe packaging.

The next one in the qeueqe is most famous trainers, Addidas

Adidas:
Adidas was found on 18th of August 1949 by Adolf Dassler, following a family feud at the Gabruder Dassler Schunfabrik company between him and older brother Rudolf. Rudolf had earlier established Puma, which quickly became the bussiness rival of Adidas. Adidas stands for Adi Dassler (Adolf Dassler). There is a popular myth among fans that Adidas stands for All day I dream about sports. American occupying forces subsequently became major buyers of the Dassler brother's shoes. The brothers split up in 1947 , with Rudi forming a new firm that he called Ruda- from Rudolf Dassler, and later rebranded it for Puma, and Adi forming accompany formally registered as Adidas AG in 1949.

Some of Adidas' packaging designs:

This design is very interesting and usefull. Useful because, we know how and where to insert our shoes. And also the box itself has a very nice design logo on the side. The typeface is pretty nice and of course the colours must match the shoes too. If you can't find other way to use this box for, then you can always use it for some memorial box or your make-up tool, or even some Adidas accessory tool box.

Them two shoe boxes seems to be pretty usual as on Adidas design. Both boxes has got doodle designs on a top of outside box. The doodles represents other shoes and footwear. And then we have two different colours and styles inside boxes. One is black and the other one is blue just like original Adidas shoe box, with 3 white strips on the side. Pretty cool and funky.

Good idea for people who loves Adidas shoes and accessories or collectors as well. Nicely done and designed. Very useful and practical on the other hand. I guess this package is on one of the top's packages that Adidas may have in their catalogue.

I think this product design is of the most creative out there in Adidas branding. I haven't seen something like this before in any other Brands for shoes out there. And if you do, its likely that they have copied Adidas design. I just would like to see more colours in that design maybe.

Very imaginative design I have to admit. I believe the packaging is very light as well, much lighter than the normal Adidas shoe box we see normally. The box could be also used for make-up brushes or stencil or any other tools that fit in there.

One of Adidas' shoe box designs where there isnt much going on, but it's still nice to have of course. And of course they have used white colours in this design.

A very interesting design. Neon shoe box is just the right thing to create. It's just so funky and kids and teen will love it for sure !

The shoe box tonex and colours will suits probably all style of shoes with neon colours. Can be very inspiring.

Very original design. I think this box is made out of wood and painted in black and red inside. I am not sure how does it look like inside but I guess its red by looking at the inside line painted red.

Good design for a shoe box bought as a present for somebody. They don't know what they going to get until they open two pieces of the box cover.

Another great idea to decorate your own trainers. And in a box with all tools that you need to make your shoes look the way you would like. And the wood box "tool" is a very nice idea, looks very creative and useful.

This is the last box for this article, and there is nothing special about it apart from the fact that its just black with famous 3 stripes in the middle. Just like every other original Adidas shoe box design looks like.

Personally I think Adidas haven't got as much good she box designs and ideas as Nike's. I am not sure why is that, as both of them are the most popular shoe brands in the world, and they should compete with each other. Not just in a matter of shoe designs but also in shoe box designs, because sometimes clients first see the shoe box not the actual trainers that are inside the box.

But we will never know if Adidas will improve their designs in product designs.

And now I'd like to move onto my personal favourite shoe brand. New balance

New balance:

New Balance is an American footwear manufacturer based in the Brighton neighbourhood of Boston, Massachusetts. The company was found in 1906 as the "New Balance" Arch Support Company and is one of the world's major sports footwear manufacturers. Nike's world headquarters are surrounded by the city of Beaverton but are within unincorporated Washington County. The city attempted to forcibly annex Nike's headquarters , which led to a lawsuit by Nike, and lobbying by the company that ultimately ended in Oregon Senete Bill 887 of 2005. In 1994 New Balance manufactured 70 % of its shoes in the U.S. In 2006 New balance stated on its customer help site that approximately 25% of the New Balance shoes sold in North America are made in the U.S and they will continue domestic manufacturing. Although New Balance has shown consistent market growth , the brand still can't compare to that of Nike , whose "swoosh" logo has a much more recognisable and sleek look.

So here they are, New Balance shoe packing designs, and ideas.

Wooden, black painted shoe box for New Balance trainers.

Very Simple, just like 620 sneakers.

Nice print on a side of the box. I guess the colours of the sneakers could be either blue and red or just blue or just red.

I actually personally really like this design, as it is different than the others from New Balance and the colour of it is unusual. Also the lid of the box isn't there this time. It's actually one box inside another box.

And this is standard now a days shoe box that New Balance designs for their shoes.

I'm a bit disappointed that I haven't found much branded New balance shoe packaging designs, because it is a very good shoe brand, but I guess the company would rather focus on the quality and performance of the shoes they are making than shoe packaging. Especially when usually their shoes are more expensive than shoes from the 2 previous brands. We definitely paying for quality of the shoes we are buying, not for packaging quality or appearance. This just gives me another excuse to maybe create something special for the brand, or even do some sketches of how their packaging could look like in a different designs.

Levi's:

Jacob Davis, a tailor from Reno, Nevada, teams with Levi Strauss to creare riveted for strength workwear made of true blue denim. On may 20th in 1873 the U.S patent and trademark office grants patent 139 and 121 to Levi Strauss & Co, and Jacob Davis for their invention. His solution was to start his own denim line, made in the USA from Cone Mills Denim. Because no one on the planet has made jeans in the U.S Ever!. Not even Levi's who certainly dont have a Made in the USA collection. The next time you see someone wearing a pair of Levi's jeans, remember that these pants are direct descendant of that first pair made back in 1873. That year, two visionary immigrants- Levi Strauss and Jacob Davis- turned denim, thread and a little metal into what has became the most popular apparel on earth. The red tab was first places onto the right back pocket of the jeans in 1936 , as a way to identify Levi's from their competition. During the Second World War, even more changes came along but instead of updates due to fashion, wartime rationing called the shots.

Levi's shoe collection haven't got any great shoe boxes therefore I would like to give myself a chance and try to create something different, something that haven't been yet invented in Levi's footwear packaging.