Ever wondered what the value of packaging is to your business?
Have you undervalued packaging in the hope that the product would do the selling for you? If so, maybe it's time to change. We did some digging to uncover some tangible evidence that good, considered packaging helps increase sales and boost business growth and profitability.
Read MoreFood waste and single use packaging is abundant in the current market and as a result we are faced with the growing issue of landfill. This raises the key question of: ‘What alternatives do we have?’. In an effort to tackle the problem, four designers from the Royal College of Art have explored a technique using discarded crustacean shells as a key ingredient in creating a biodegradable alternative to traditional plastic packaging.
Sources: https://physicsworld.com/a/composite-chitin-film-could-replace-plastic-packaging/, https://cordis.europa.eu/project/rcn/105848/factsheet/en, https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/792d/72c4792d9a93fcfffb8d9984f7277f666da0.pdf
Read MoreLast week, the winners for the Australasian Packaging Design Awards were announced. In the Packaging Innovation & Design of the year award - Beverage Category the silver winner was our very own Stay Tray.
Read MoreHere at Hone Product Design we spend a lot of time with our clients working on new product development. One consideration when launching a new product, is the packaging design. As with the product design itself, the packaging needs to be well considered. This includes not only the look and feel of the packaging, which has so much influence on the customer experience, but also the life of the package once it has done its job.
Read MoreLate last month Boeing successfully tested their first prototype for an electric flying car. The company has committed to developing a market-ready product, after going from design to working prototype in just under a year.
Read MoreDriverless cars are almost here; in as little as 3 years they may be available according to Tesla. With every high profile new technology hitting the market, claims of a revolution are sure to follow, as are the luddites who refuse to accept that change is inevitable. Driverless cars are no exception here, with this technology resulting in mixed responses from the public..
Read MoreWe are in a brave new world of transport revolution, the development of autonomous vehicles and flying cars as per Boeing’s latest release is only the beginning. A point to point transport system combining the convenience of trains and faster than a jet is also being developed called a hyperloop.
Read MoreIn Brooklyn, there’s a studio called Trofe, where change is brewing or should we say change is growing. Danielle, the founder and namesake of Trofe has been working on a range of lights grown from fungus.
Read MoreVertical Farming, it’s a new way of farming, growing plants on racks that are then stacked on top of each other and grown under LED lights. I’ve heard it’s going to be the next big thing for a good number of years now but where is it?
Read MoreThe new Gople lamp created in by the Bjarke Ingels Group in collaboration with Artemide is specifically designed to nourish and increase growth in houseplants. This got us at Hone Product Design here in Melbourne thinking, could there be more benefits to changing our regular lights for grow lights that simulate sunlight? Let’s have a look at what we found.
Read MoreOver the last few years here at Hone Product Design in Melbourne, we’ve seen the consumer desire for recycled and bio products grow exponentially. Reebok and Adidas, two of the largest shoe retailers in the world have now released bio and recycled lines. The change in attitude by multinationals towards the environment and the future that they will play is evidence of a changing consumer culture which values minimising our environmental impact.
Read MoreIn the society we live in here in Melbourne and around the world, contribution to smog is inevitable. We cannot escape it as it is caused by everything from transporting the goods we need to sustain ourselves to construction to put roofs over our heads. Although contribution to smog is inevitable, we can still make choices that will have a positive impact.
Read MoreAt the start of a July Australia’s two dominating supermarkets began to phase out single use plastic bags, Coles then backtracked on this pledge showing just how popular single use plastics still are with the Australian public. The debate on the future of single use plastics being pushed further into the spotlight by Coles could be at least some silver lining from their regression.
However, it is now proving that it is here to stay but not in the way that most thought. 3D printers will not be in majority of homes anytime soon as many were excited that they would, but rather, a greater number of products both for mainstream and industrial consumers are now being produced through 3D printing. Additive Manufacturing and Product Design for Additive Manufacture have a had a rapid development towards producing 3D printed products for end-use. Thanks to established technologies such as Selective Laser Sintering and the rapidly improving ones like Multi Jet Fusion, the barrier to market of high production setup costs is being lowered significantly. Both established business and startups can have products manufactured in small batches and even on demand in a quality that is either ready, or requires minimal finishing to be ready for market.
Plastics are produced almost entirely from fossil fuels and only 14% of plastic packaging materials are recycled. At least 8 million tonnes of plastic waste finds its way into the ocean each year. It is currently estimated that 150 million tonnes of plastic are in the ocean today and if drastic changes are not adopted in industrial and packaging design this will exceed 300 million tonnes by 2050. This amount will actually be greater than fish in the ocean by weight.
Read MoreThe Packaging & Processing Innovation and Design Awards (PIDA) 2018 is here, it will be taking place on 2nd May in Queensland. The event is organised by the Australian Institute of Packaging (AIP), the Australian Packaging & Processing Machinery Association (APPMA), and the Packaging Council of New Zealand. The awards recognise innovative packaging design and materials processing in Australia and New Zealand.
Read MoreThe Design Institute of Australia (DIA) defines industrial designers as “[Those who] develop and prepare products for manufacture... They explore solutions to meet marketing, manufacturing and financial requirements and arrive at the optimum design of a product. They consider both functional and aesthetic aspects and pay particular attention to ergonomics, those factors that relate to ease of use and human behaviour.” Industrial design, therefore, goes beyond just making products aesthetically appealing. In fact, it’s core purpose is to develop an effectively functioning product of a high quality build that is also user friendly and efficient to produce. These fundamental principles of good product design are inherently good for business. A well-functioning, high-quality, user-friendly, and appealing product improves your competitive advantage while efficient use of materials and manufacturing processes reduces production and distribution costs.
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