Chances are, while wondering through the drink aisle of a grocery store, you've spotted a brand-new product and thought, “Hey, that looks good!” You didn’t know if the drink is sweet or tangy, refreshing or syrupy, or healthy or indulgent. All you knew is that you were tempted to fork over a few bucks and give it a try.

If this has ever happened to you, you've made a decision on a product based on nothing but the packaging. Packaging is a giant global industry, with some estimates putting its yearly market impact at over $400 billion dollars! A product's packaging has to accomplish a lot: it has to keep the items safe during shipping and storage, it has to keep out harmful bugs and other contaminates, and it has to prevent people from stealing what's inside. But one of packaging's most important jobs is to grab a shopper's attention and get them to buy, buy, buy.

The design of a package carries a lot of information in it about the product, the people who made the product, and the type of people who buy the product. Sweating athletes on the package send one message about the drink, partying teenagers say something else. If a product has light pastel colors, you might think it has a soft and sweet taste. Clear or silver colors hint at something light and bubbly. Bold, dark colors hint at a strong and energizing drink.

Graphic designers can also use meaning and symbolism in their packaging design. Fruits and round shapes can convey an organic and healthy product, while sharp geometric shapes are common in energy drinks and sugary sodas. Good graphic designers can use human psychology and biology to subtly suggest what drinking the product will be like, without coming out and saying it.

The designs on these sodas use geometric shapes and interesting angles to suggest that trying them will be an effervescent, refreshing experience.		The natural setting, focus on fresh fruit, and clean, thin font all work together to give the product a healthy, organic feeling.

All of the elements of the design help provide meaning to customers. Often, split second decisions are made simply on the packaging alone. In fact, a 2014 study in the European Journal of Scientific Research found that packaging is one of the most "important and powerful" factors when a consumer is deciding what to buy. In this lesson we will look at some of the many aspects of graphic design that you will need to consider when designing product packaging, and give you a chance to try designing some product packages yourself.