Package Design - April 2012 - 14

DESIGNER’S CORNER

By RONalD DE Vlam

Primed for Innovation
Creative environments accelerate the innovation process.

I

was a reasonably experienced motorcyclist when I decided to take on the rough, windy desert terrain of South America. Doing off-road at speeds reaching 80 MPH, one of the things I learned very quickly was to not slow down and lose momentum when the going got tough. The faster you go on a bike, the less chance you’ll fall off. Even though danger and fear were making their presence well known, I had to trust my instinct and gun it. For me, this experience relates to the innovation process: You have to gun it. Full throttle. Slowing down is dangerous! To survive, brands need to move fast because consumers are shifting fast.

concepts that are ready for consumer evaluation. I’ve found that the best environment for innovation starts with five elements—space, insights, cocreation, strategy and buy-in. Space: Seek informal workspaces Get out of your cubicle. Better yet, get out of your office. Move around and expose yourself to things you haven’t seen or done before. Our own backyards are often full of surprises than can inspire design opportunities. Then, take that informal approach to developing creative spaces for your meeting environments. Conduct creative workshops with consumers instead of focus groups. They’re informal, can take place anywhere, and are a great opportunity to bring people with different perspectives and functions together. With carefully planned exercises, these dynamic and fast-paced workshops encourage constructive collaboration and allow for your consumers to act as a soundboard. Listen, build on their ideas and let them help inform the innovation process with iterative feedback. Alternatively, when we hold a workshop in

NurturiNg iNNovatioN
If you ask five different people to define innovation, you’ll get five different answers. Let’s think about how innovation relates to package design, as a market-changing product, service or experience. Innovation requires a bespoke process, dependent on factors such as the size of the project, the scope and the budget. The process can run quickly, and it shouldn’t take more than six weeks to deliver 12 to 16 great
Innovative ideas can spring from informal creative workshops where designers are encouraged to sketch and write out their ideas.

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Package Design - April 2012

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Package Design - April 2012

Package Design - April 2012
Contents
From the Editor
Front Panel
Snapshots
Designer's Corner
Certifiable, and Proud of It
Prescription for Profits
Far Beyond Farming
The Promise of Technology
Proof of Concepts
Product Focus: Glass & Rigid Plastic
Online Now
Datebook
Index of Advertisers
Globespotting
Package Design - April 2012 - Intro
Package Design - April 2012 - Package Design - April 2012
Package Design - April 2012 - Cover2
Package Design - April 2012 - 1
Package Design - April 2012 - Contents
Package Design - April 2012 - 3
Package Design - April 2012 - From the Editor
Package Design - April 2012 - 5
Package Design - April 2012 - Front Panel
Package Design - April 2012 - 7
Package Design - April 2012 - 8
Package Design - April 2012 - 9
Package Design - April 2012 - Snapshots
Package Design - April 2012 - 11
Package Design - April 2012 - 12
Package Design - April 2012 - 13
Package Design - April 2012 - Designer's Corner
Package Design - April 2012 - 15
Package Design - April 2012 - 16
Package Design - April 2012 - 17
Package Design - April 2012 - Certifiable, and Proud of It
Package Design - April 2012 - 19
Package Design - April 2012 - 20
Package Design - April 2012 - 21
Package Design - April 2012 - Prescription for Profits
Package Design - April 2012 - 23
Package Design - April 2012 - Far Beyond Farming
Package Design - April 2012 - 25
Package Design - April 2012 - 26
Package Design - April 2012 - 27
Package Design - April 2012 - The Promise of Technology
Package Design - April 2012 - 29
Package Design - April 2012 - Proof of Concepts
Package Design - April 2012 - 31
Package Design - April 2012 - 32
Package Design - April 2012 - 33
Package Design - April 2012 - Product Focus: Glass & Rigid Plastic
Package Design - April 2012 - 35
Package Design - April 2012 - 36
Package Design - April 2012 - 37
Package Design - April 2012 - Online Now
Package Design - April 2012 - Index of Advertisers
Package Design - April 2012 - Globespotting
Package Design - April 2012 - Cover3
Package Design - April 2012 - Cover4
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