Japanese packaging beautiful and handy

By Ida Indawati Khouw

JAKARTA (JP): Many department stores are offering their services in wrapping gifts in beautiful paper, ribbons and boxes nowadays. The one-stop service has received a warm welcome from customers, specially those who have less time and skill to make attractive looking packages.

Packaging, indeed needs specific skills but it is definitely learnable. Two Japanese professors in packaging design, Tadayo Hirano and Toshiro Ishio, visited Jakarta on Sept. 7 to promote their skills in a one-day workshop, enthusiastically participated by around 100 people, on paper packaging held by the Japan Cultural Center in South Jakarta.

The new designs are extremely attractive specially for children. For instance, the Magic Scope Candy package in which children can enjoy moving pictures of their favorite Walt Disney figures. They simply move the cubical candy container inside the square tube forward and backward.

With a conical aluminum foil wrapper on the container's top, Disney figures pictured at the tube's inner sides can be reflected and by moving the container the children can create moving pictures.

Don't be surprised in seeing children sucking a "ring" on their finger as they enjoy candy that can be put on fingers, similar to a ring.

Other popular products in Japan are the Snack Galaxi Man which is specially designed to enable children to use the package as a handicraft after consuming the snack.

"Innovative packaging can be a useful communication tool between parents and children or among children themselves besides its main role of attracting more costumers," said the 60-year-old Hirano.

Both Hirano and 65-year-old Ishio have been the specialists in packaging. Hirano started his career in the design 30 years ago while Ishio has spent 10 years longer than his colleague.

Their experience has shown that attractive and innovative packaging have played a great role in increasing product sales.

"When the Magic Scope Candy packaging was changed in 1997 sales rocketed three fold," said Hirano, who has received various awards on packaging, at the sideline of the workshop.

Innovation is not merely confined to the art of wrapping the gifts but also on opening the gifts. Hirano said he invented a simple package for a chocolate product, just in the form of long cubical compartment, but the way to open it makes it interesting.

Customers must first answer multiple choice questions to open the right compartment that is filled with chocolate.

As for other products, Hirano concentrates more on the practical side of putting the products in the package to make it easier for customers to get them.

"Many things need to be observed. Sometimes, wrappers forget to know what people generally think. The first thing to do is knowing what people like so we understand their needs," he said.

Ishio said before beginning his creative process, he would go window shopping.

"I pretend that I'm a camera recording the whole environment. I usually identify what kind of product packaging can be recorded by my brain in only half-a-second of seeing them. They must be eye catching."

"Don't forget to always consider how the product is displayed at shops or supermarkets. Therefore designers must adjust the design," Ishio said, referring to a certain detergent packaging which is unsuccessful in selling.

"The package was too sturdy that other products were piled up above the detergent. The customers then found it difficult to take the detergent out," said Ishio, currently teaching at the Kuwazawa Design School.

Both experts emphasized that each packaging design must be distinctive to attract costumers. But they must also be practical and compact, easy to open, enjoyable for customers and use recycled materials.