Package Design - June/July 2014 - 27

your
" comfort
zone

Get out of

-especially in the
beginning of your career. Do
it in the first 10 years of your
career. Then go back and use
that knowledge for crosspollination-connect different
worlds.

the north, so we used to go to Rome for Christmas and for the summer. Since I was a kid, I
had to go visit all the Roman architecture. I had
this passion"
It's this high level of curiosity that he looks
for in employees. "If you have that kind of level
of curiosity, then you are going to grow," he
remarks. "This will help you understand the
company, the business world in a more relevant
way. You'll learn how to really build value for the
different parts of the organization that you have
in front of you."
His advice to young designers: "Get out of
your comfort zone-especially in the beginning
of your career. Do it in the first 10 years of your
career. Then go back and use that knowledge for
cross-pollination-connect different worlds. All
of your knowledge and your background can
change your point of view. Getting out of a specific perspective and learning the perspective of
others. That's extremely important."
Feeding and nurturing a naturally curious
mind can help you understand the business realities and consumers' needs. "I never had an
MBA," Porcini explains. "I never went to business
school. But no matter what your background, if
you are curious, you're going to learn the different worlds, the different realities that surround
you. Traveling and reading will help you also."

CHARACTERISTICS THAT PORCINI
LOOKS FOR IN AN EMPLOYEE

▾
Curiosity

▾
Optimism

A designer can leverage that knowledge in
all parts of the product, package and brand
development process-gaining a seat at the
strategy table. "Business thinkers can translate
what they do into business language and connect the two worlds," he adds. "That can drive
specific innovation that's right for the company-that is going to create value for the
company."
CELEBRATE YOUR AFFINITY
FOR AESTHETICS

Designers who struggle with business principles shouldn't despair. "Not every designer in
the world needs to be a strategic thinker and a
business thinker," Porcini remarks. "I've met
amazing design talents who can translate an
insight into something that is phenomenal and
eventually is going to sell-a lot. You can choose
to be just a designer and just design great
things. At PepsiCo, we are creating a career path
for both kinds of experts."
As long as the talent is curious, optimistic,
resilient and visionary. "Optimism is extremely
important you're changing the culture of a company," Porcini says. "You're trying to change the
world, and you're changing the way people
interact with products and brands. When you
try to change or evolve anything, you're going to

▾
Resilience

▾
Vision

face roadblocks. You will face problems. It's part
of the game. Actually, if you don't face that, it
means that you're not changing anything. So
optimism is very important to understand how
to go on every day no matter what. Optimism
will enable you to be resilient.
"Resilience is another key characteristic," he
adds. "You need to be able to face roadblocks and
follow your vision. It's important to understand
where you want to go, where you want your company to be in the future, and be able to work back
and build a path. Tweaking the direction along
the way is fine, but you must know your destination at every change. Because when you're trying
to evolve things, change culture, there will be
some battles that you will lose, it's part of the
game. Your goal is to win the bigger battle."
Along the way, don't forget aesthetics. "The
problem is we keep talking about strategy,
about business, and so you may end up finding
designers who are amazing strategists, but
they're not designers anymore," Porcini says.
"Let's make sure that we have the sensibility to
understand what is beautiful packaging, a beautiful product, what is meaningful and what is
not, and what is tasteful and what is not. The
fact is at the end of the day, no matter how strategic we are, how innovative we are, we are
designers first of all." l

JOIN US FOR FREE VIDEO WEBINAR WITH MAURO PORCINI ON AUGUST 5.
MORE DETAILS ON THE WEBINAR CAN BE FOUND ON PAGE 21 OF THIS ISSUE.

PACKAGEDESIGNMAG.COM

Package Design - June/July 2014

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