Among all clutter of packaging, it was good to see a packaging that brought the richness of culture and highlighted the deep roots of a community. It also reflects a deeper connection with human emotions.
Designers, often try to connect a brand with users and their requirements in the best possible way but sometimes we miss out on the emotional connection of the cultural relevance of a product. The maker/community where the product is built & nurtured. The cultural aspect in making of the product and its journey.
Rice packaging done by #BackboneBranding has conveyed an emotional, human message but being functional at the same time.
The attributes inspired by farmers day to day life clothing and expressions is amazing!
How do we start our search?
It all starts with the inspiration, mind mapping & mood board we develop before ideating. In my last couple of presentations, my mood boards have been centric around- millennial & tech-oriented era. This definitely highlights that we are developing products & packaging for a face-paced generation. So, we need to set a context in the start and build our mind mapping which includes culture attributes as an important part.
Till now we make mood boards on the basis of functional, emotional, and consumer attributes. It is necessary that we add the fourth quadrant of culture while making inspiration mapping to have a 360-degree view of the entire product journey.
A tool to help dig deep into roots-
We can use a simple bull's eye technique where we can divide quadrants into 4 major categories :
Functional
Emotional/Intangible
User mapping
Cultural aspects
We can decide the weightage of each quadrant according to project relevance.
Here is one example, where all four quadrants have equal weightage and divided further into sub-compartments to build a comprehensive experience map.
The tool will help to build an experience map that can be further taken for ideation.
We need to help our generation understand and get connected to human emotions involved in building one product through packaging.
I hope next time you sit for brainstorming you can use the above tool for mind mapping.
You can let me know how did this tool work for you at - amitajain16@gmail.com
Or you can give your feedback below.
Amita
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