Packaging Design. A Systemic Approach to a Complex Artifact

Abstract

Packaging is a complex artifact, which has considerably expanded its functions over time. It is an object of use (instrumental prosthesis), which allows to contain the product, protect it, store it, transport it, and at the same time, facilitate its physical interaction with the user. Also, it is communication device (communication prosthesis), characterized by functions, among others, of appellative, persuasive, informative and prescriptive kind. For its multifaceted nature, the project of a package requires different skills and the intervention of multiple disciplines: for that reason, should be understood as the result of an integrated set of choices made by a plurality of actors, where each performs a specific role – direct or indirect – in its definition. These actors, together with the relationships that are established throughout the product life cycle, define the so-called “packaging-system”. Within this system, Design –and specifically Communication Design– may play an important role in direction and mediation, potentially giving shape through the project synthesis to solutions which are an expression of the confluence of the needs of the different parties involved and the multiple functions of the artifact, connecting the communicative dimension to a strictly instrumental dimension.