Packaging for electronics: Giving gadgets a clear headstart

Thankfully, mobile phones are no longer the size of bricks. As their size has reduced, so has their packaging – so much so that Nokia’s senior design manager Ulla Uiomen was moved to question whether more can be done to optimise their packaging. The size of the package has reached its minimum, says Uiomen. Only by reducing the size of the accessories can the size of the package now be decreased.

There may be something in what Uiomen says, as Nokia managed to retain its top ranking in Greenpeace’s latest Guide to Greener Electronics, released in March this year. Greenpeace’s guide charts the environmental credentials of electronic companies. Nokia scored maximum points for its comprehensive voluntary take-back programme, which spans 84 countries, but lost points for not extending its use of recycled materials beyond its packaging.

Nokia already uses materials such as wood fibres and natural fibre-based flax in its packaging. The company is currently exploring the possibilities of using agricultural waste as a raw material and bioplastics. Efficiency usually means eco-efficiency as well, says Uiomen. Environmentally sound materials are also beautiful and feel comfortable.

Green machine
Sony Ericsson’s latest eco-friendly handset is a prime example of sustainable credentials taking centre stage. The GreenHeart, among other things, uses HTML-based e-manuals and environmentally conscious packaging. The impact this will have on transporting the product through the supply chain will be substantial in light of the volumes Sony Ericsson deals in.

Electronic goods are expensive items and so packaging must be robust enough to withstand the supply chain. Dutch firm PaperFoam manufactures 100% biodegradable starch-based packaging material, which can be colour-matched and embossed with a company’s logos, for everything from CD and DVD packaging through to mobile phone packs. It was reported to have supplied Apple with a custom-made cardboard box with a recyclable starch inlay for Apple’s iPhone 3G and has previously supplied packs for Apple’s iPod Nano and Video, as well as Motorola mobile phones.

PaperFoam sales and marketing manager Willem Derkman says manufacturers of mobile phones and MP3 players are looking for a greener way to pack their products. Carbon footprinting is becoming ever more important, driven by companies like Wal-Mart in the US, says Derkman. We receive more and more questions about life-cycle analysis and if we can estimate the carbon footprint of a product, he says.

PaperFoam has already calculated the carbon footprint of its DVD and Blu-ray products and can do the same for its mobile phone packaging. However, Derkman says: It’s a costly job and you need to know the logistics.

Calculating the carbon footprint of a mobile phone and its packaging is made more difficult by the fact that much of the packaging is manufactured in the Far East. The cost of shipping dictates that the size of the pack must be as small as possible, while being robust enough to withstand the supply chain. As Burgopak’s director Jeremy Light explains, logistics are part and parcel of briefs from mobile phone companies.

Burgopak got involved in the phone market in 2007 when it started working with Motorola. In the years since, Burgopak has produced more than 30 million units of its sliding packs for the company. It has even customised the packs around each phone to mimic the sliding action of the handsets themselves.

According to Light, mobile phone manufacturers catering for the European and Asian markets take a very different approach to packaging than companies catering for the US market. In the UK, for example, customers often get the opportunity to view the packaging before they purchase and it could have some impact on their decision. Packaging doesn’t have the same impact in the US because customers rarely see it, says Light.

Regardless, the majority of mobile phone packaging is made from litho-laminated fluted board. Supermarkets, in particular, have huge sway over their suppliers and often dictate what packaging they will accept. Wal-Mart recently invited its electronic suppliers to enter a home entertainment design challenge, which was evaluated on design quality, product innovation that reduces environmental impact and packaging design that encourages reuse and recycling, reduces waste, and reduces or eliminates the use of toxic materials. The winner has yet to be announced.

Obviously, packaging reductions are not just the domain of the mobile phone sector. Wires and cables protrude from many electronic devices and need to be considered when designing packaging to display the products. Apple’s iPod surreptitiously hides accessories in a compartment at the back of its clear plastic packs so the main product is displayed unobstructed.

Making sure the product was clearly displayed was a key consideration for design agency Brandhouse when it designed the product packaging for Jabra’s hands-free and wireless headsets.

What you have is a structure in which you can see the product from all angles, explains creative director Dave Beard. We’ve a plastic box, which has a very simple structure that suspends the Bluetooth set. Icons and strap lines were also used to make it easier for customers to understand what the product does, how it works and whether it suits their needs. You can see exactly what you are getting, says Beard.

HMV technology and books product manager Ricky Gordon agrees. Ideally, the customer should be able to see the product so there is no need to open the box. A number of suppliers have introduced windows so that the customer can also feel the quality of the product without needing to open the packaging.

Brand extension
Apple’s iPod is also displayed in clear plastic. The packaging credentials of the iPod range match the design credentials of the products. Since the launch of the first Classic iPod, its packaging has reduced in weight by 35% and it now takes up 82% less space. In the fast-paced world of electronics, companies must continually improve their products, and Apple has taken steps to reduce the size of its iPods and streamline its Mac computers – adding weight to Uiomen from Nokia’s argument that work should focus on the product. The original 15-inch Mac monitor weighed 18.3kg and its packaging 3.7kg. Since then, the monitor has been through a number of alterations and original product and packaging weights have been halved.

3M, meanwhile, has developed a single-piece wraparound plastic tray for electronics that it says is strong enough to protect a laptop when dropped from heights of 90cm. The pack can be used on its own or with a card sleeve to minimise packaging. When not in use, it can be nested with other packs to save space.

Reducing the amount of material used in electronics packaging is a driving force in its design, according to Burgopak’s Light. Packaging has been reduced for economic and environmental reasons, while the size of the product has reduced for functional and aesthetic reasons. Large retailers have a lot of influence in encouraging manufacturers to use certain materials and meet weight reduction targets, but the electronics companies have embraced this and harnessed it as a marketing tool. As technology evolves and mobile phones continue to shrink, the eventual result could well be teeny-tiny phones in teeny-tiny packs – all made from recycled fibres, of course.

THE COLOURS OF MONEY
Walk into any Dixons and on one side there will be the snazzy iPods, cameras and the like and on the other will be the staple printing paraphernalia. But how do you distinguish yourself in what could be deemed a less than glamorous sector? Global manufacturer of binding and laminating machines, Fellowes, approached Shoal Creative in 2006 to do just that.

Worthing-based Shoal was asked to create fresh and colourful universal packaging designs with instant appeal that would clearly communicate key features and benefits of the machines in up to nine languages. The team was also tasked with updating the machines themselves.

With hundreds of SKUs to consider, the solution was a design template that consistently displayed the product USPs, while allowing the product image and message to remain the hero, says Shoal Creative design director Paul Sheene. A colour-coding system was introduced to differentiate the binding (green) and laminating (blue) products. This system has since been adopted worldwide. One of the largest challenges was scale, said Sheene. The consumables design solution had to work across a whole range of SKUs from A3+ down to business card size. However, Shoal’s perseverance paid off as global sales of Fellowes products increased 48% between April 2007 and March 2008. The new designs turned Fellowes into a consistently profitable company and won the range gold in the International Export category at the Design Business Association Awards 2008.

Popular Articles