So why does ice cream packaging design excite me?! I felt it would be nice to share this because how we connect to a product influences our thought process and hence its brand! And for this, I think it is surely a little more of heart than mind for me! That’s what get’s my ideas going.
Let’s jump into it!
As a designer, it does make a difference when you design something that you are super excited about, versus something that you do just for the heck of it! And for sure thinking about ice cream packaging design excites me. It hence drives me to think about what an ice cream packaging design should look like!
Oh! By the way, the above image is a glimpse of the strawberry flavour ice cream tub design I did for a self-project!
From here, I am jumping into some stories!
Ice cream! What is it that first comes to your mind when I say this? Something that you love? A hot summer day? Your favourite ice cream joint?…..
But you know what comes to my mind? It reminds of moments when I have enjoyed ice cream.
School time memory
So some of my initial memories of ice cream are from school time! We had this small ice cream cart in our school. I can never forget that “the most luxurious ice cream treat” that it offered was a Rs.10 ice cream cone. In that, the ice cream vendor gave a scoop of vanilla, strawberry, chocolate and coffee! All from a local brand! Damnnnnn! And we loved it! Me and friends would fish around our bags during brunch time to gather coins that we might have and buy an icecream! And if it was someone’s birthday and we got a cone all by ourselves to have, OMG! that was treat day!!!
First big travel
My first trip to New York! – that’s the other memory that comes to my mind when I think of ice creams. I was not just excited about being there but I simply went gaga over Ben & Jerry’s ice creams! Their’s is truly the best chocolate ice cream I have ever had and I simply couldn’t get over it! I had the same flavour over and over again and couldn’t I stop talking about it! Well, I think I should stop talking about it now though! Ben & Jerry’s further brings to my mind, the bollywood movie, Salaam Namaste! If you are a bollywood freak like me, then you know what I am talking about!
What have these stories got to do with ice cream packaging design after all?!
It is to come to the point that ice creams by their very nature are a very joyful product I believe! Ice creams always connect me to a very warm, family-like, friendly emotion. They are all fun memories. It also brings to my mind how my 9 year old nephew loves to tease me whenever he gets to eat ice cream and I decide to skip it to keep my calories in check!
Hence, to justify the emotion that this product evokes, I would let my heart take over my mind when I have to do ice cream packaging design. I think the best connect with consumers will happen just then!
This is how I set the visual direction for my ice cream packaging design project.
I decided to design for 6 ice cream tubs and add a tiny emotion and thought to each of them.
Let me elaborate the example of what I did for the cookie flavour ice cream here!
So I obviously love cookies! I simply cannot deny it! They are my all time favourite thing! But other than being a personal favourite, what cookies bring to my mind is celebrations! We could pop-up with cookies as a gift too. So this brings to my mind the feeling of celebration and joy. And hence, I decided to use multiple colors for this one!
My overall tone and visual direction was already set as I chose to make this whole project in my style of design.
With the vibe and color direction clear, I started thinking of visuals or elements that will help establish the feeling of celebration and joy that I want to bring out with this design. I made a list of multiple elements and finally shortlisted on the use of flowers along with the visuals of cookies and ice cream itself. When I put it together, I realised that because there are multiple colors, but our space is limited, too many elements were becoming overwhelming, hence I narrowed my usage. I instead chose places to put generic visuals like waves (representing streamers).
All this became easier because my end goal was clear and didn’t change. Remember! Feeling of celebration and joy! So every decision was right for the visual, if it got the ice cream packaging design closer to the goal.
So this is how I put a feeling in each of the tubs!
I totally believe that when we get our emotions right, it will automatically reflect in design and branding and will strike a chord with consumers for sure! After all, we are all humans in here!
How can I make my packaging design better?
You might ask me that Radhika, this still sounds vague! Can you break it down or translate it into how to really use this direction for ice cream packaging design and how does it make it better?
So here’s what I would reply to how emotions could be translated into adding a feeling to a brand and not just make random visuals.
Let’s break it down to actionable steps!
- Be clear about one key emotion that your brand or your ice cream packaging design should evoke in people. Of course, this will align with your brand goals.
- To get to the point above, you might require a little market study, research, knowledge at your end as an entrepreneur.
- Once this is super clear, it is important to communicate all off this to your designer!
- A designer would then be able to use the right colors, the right elements, copy, visual hierarchy to wrap up that emotion in your brand and convey it through your ice cream packaging design!
The above example on how I made the cookie ice cream packaging design could further clarify this point!
When all this is done with honest, true thoughts and real emotions, it will surely come together to make a super exciting ice cream packaging design!
And for me personally, because I love to design brands that ooze out a happy vibe, ice creams become an exciting product to work with! I believe that adding a spark of joy to ice cream brands will make them memorable and exciting for their consumers!
On that note, I would sign-off, not to have an ice cream (It is too cold to have one where I am currently!) but to think of more such tiny moments that could make ice cream packaging designs exciting!
