The second part of assignment number three, is designing new packaging for rice. The packaging has to be different from what is out there in the market.I will go through the SCAMPER techniques, and choose my favorite option.
S – SUBSTITUTE
- If you walk into any grocery store today, you will find that most of the rice packages are quite similar. Most of them being rectangles made of carton, some are big plastic bags, and some smaller plastic bags. Here we can play with many different materials, we can use paper, plastic, bamboo, wood, silicone, glass or different biodegradable materials.
C – COMBINE
- Plain rice is like a blank piece of paper, you can make almost anything. There are crazy amounts of condiments you can add to your product. And easy as that create a whole range of rice products.
- Choosing the amount of rice for a serving is sometimes hard to determine. A sort of measuring device could be added to the packaging to help with this.
- Combining a bottle and a regular box of rice, would make it both easier to pour and get the amount you want. It can also help the clumsy ones, no rice all over the floor when the package get knocked over.
A – ADAPT
- We could add a small window segment to our rice package, which will help us to see the amount of rice left.
- On a cylinder shaped package, we could add a lid similar to the ones on spices. This would be great in being able to dosage, and close it up afterwards.
M – MODIFY OR MAGNIFY
- Most of the rice packages are often shapes as rectangles. Here we could play with other shapes, such as cylinders, hexagons and triangles. We could also make different sizes for different kinds of customer segments. A huge family often need a larger package, than a single household.
- Depending on which customer group the product is made for, different colors and textures is quite interesting to tinker with. A matte black rice package, might look more exclusive then a glossy black package.
P – PUT TO ANOTHER USE
- Depending on chosen material, the package itself could be used as a flower vase or as a storage box in your home.
- I’ll admit that this Corona lockdown we have in Norway at the moment, where my kids kindergarten is closed, affects my creative thinking, perhaps for the better. The rice itself could be made into different kinds of playing materials. By adding different colors to the rice it could become a crafting material, used for decoration, paintings and a whole lot of fun crafty projects. It can also be used as a sensory toy, just putting it in a box, adding dried peas and such. This will make it quite exiting just to put their hands in, digging, lifting it, perhaps even throwing it up in the air.
E – ELIMINATE
- By using a material that we can use several times, either with refill packs from the store, or a refill dispenser at the store, we could eliminate a whole lot of packaging material.
R – REVERSE OR REARRANGE
- This one is difficult to do without settling for an option on what product to roll with. I think I have made up my mind, inspired by my kids these weeks with Corona lockdown. If I were to reverse or rearrange my idea, I would end up with plain edible rice. Okay, this is my idea:
Like I said, for this one I got the inspiration from my kids. The last two weeks have been about playing around the house, exploring and crafting. We have beaded rainbows, started beading decorations for easter, painted colorful stones for our garden, drawing a lot, and thinking out new crafts for the next weeks. And i suddenly thought: How about a product both fun to eat, and fun to play with? Rice in the color of the rainbow, with natural colors of course. Using the the colors red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet. In our house that would be a huge success! Due to the fun colors, this product is also perfect for crafting and playtime. Let me present my new package, and product: Rainbow rice.
I decided to go for a hexagon shaped box, this is not a very common shape on the shelf. For my font I went for Elephant, I thought it were appropriate fun, and made colored the letters in the color of the rainbow. Also the raindrops shaped as rice grains are in the seven colors of the rainbow. For my background/box color, I wanted something different and also a subtle color, decided on this green. Kinda liked it, and I think it works. Adobe Illustrator is totally new to me, and I had a blast going through the introduction course this week. Can’t wait until I’m not a total newbie anymore.
Trubadilje 